On the stewardship of our time, talents, tissues and treasures, my theme of time is a challenge for me.  You see, for many years I served congregations as a full-time pastor, teaching, preaching, visiting, praying, singing and playing my guitar, sitting on committees, serving others wherever and whenever I was needed.  Although I am now no longer a parish pastor, it is still very easy for me to volunteer at doing almost everything that I have done in full-time parish ministry!  What I see as opportunities for service (e.g., Praise Team planning, practices, and playing) can also be for me a real time management challenge, because I now have a time-consuming career in publishing that involves months of travel plus I am writing a new book!

But my stewardship of time needs to be put into perspective.  A recent study showed that a 70 year old man over the course of his life, spent 24 years sleeping, 14 years working, 8 years in amusements, 6 years at the dinner table, 5 years in transportation, 4 years in conversation, 3 years in education, and 2 years in studying and reading.  His other 4 years were spent in miscellaneous pursuits.  Of those 4 years, he spent forty-five minutes in church on Sundays and five minutes in prayer each day.  This only amounted to five months that he gave to God over the 70 years of his life!  Even if this man would have attended church every Sunday and devoted three additional hours per week to church service activities  (i.e., 4 hours total or a tithe of his 40-hour work week) he still would have spent only 1 year and nine months at church!  As you ponder the math, ask yourself: how  much time am I devoting to God and God’s service to others?  Then reflect on the following scriptural passages.

“For what will it profit them to gain the whole world but forfeit their life?  Indeed what can they give in exchange for their life?”  (Mark 8:36-37)

“But it is not so among you; whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to become first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45). 

“We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). 

“Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to provide for you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:7-8).

Although we live in a world where it seems awkward to do so, we can make known God’s love for everyone when we give and forgive!

Submitted by: Chuck Puskas