Knowing Who's in Charge

There is some danger in describing about the Steward's way. When we talk about accepting our role as God's servants carrying out his will in the world, we run the risk of interpreting that to mean we are to run around fixing things, taking responsibility for seeing that everything runs in the way we interpret God would want it to run. As my teenage granddaughter would say, "How annoying."

I don't see my responsibility as a Steward to be to fix anything. I see my responsibility as acting in certain ways, creating environments around me by my own actions and attitudes through which God's way can be seen by others. The "church" word for that is witness. For me, witness is not as  much telling about God as much as living out how I think God wants me to live. If I do that, the opportunity for telling the story will come when the time is right. I need to be prepared to tell that story when the opportunity arises, because I never know when it might happen.

When I first started my job showing FUMC property to prospective renters, I was surprised to find myself in situations where my role suddenly shifted from selling to counseling as someone felt moved to start asking about who and what we are at FUMC and shared their life or spiritual situation with me. This was unexpected and I continue studying to prepare myself to be ready for those encounters.

Speaking of being prepared, or not, Sunday May 28 is Pentecost. It's time to get fired up!