The S Word # 21

THE THEOLOGY OF MONEY # 21

STORIES FROM STEWARDSHIP LIFE
By Douglas Hambidge

In Kwa Mkona there is a highly qualified orthopedic surgeon. She works in an ill-equipped hospital, straightening limbs twisted out of shape by polio. Through her work all kinds of people are able to walk again, and that almost certainly means they can support themselves in ways other than begging. She gives them back their lives. When I asked why she had given up her highly successful and lucrative practice in England, her response was simple. “I have received so much . I have so much to be thankful for. This is a way to show that thankfulness.”
And there you have a doctor in that out-of-the-way village in Tanzania living out her life as a steward, by faith, with thanksgiving.

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Stewardship is so much more than some kind of appeal for funds or a once-a-year programme of the parish. When we realize that only saying prayers and merely singing hymns and passing a plate around during worship are simply not enough, then we begin to recognize that we are called in tangible, down-to-earth ways to give more than things; to give more than time; to give more than energies and skills; and to give more than our financial resources.

As stewards we are called to give ourselves. Because all we have and all we are had been entrusted to us by our generous and giving God.

Giving is costly. The people in my stories found it costly. The giving of God is
costly.

The life of a steward is a life offered by faith with thanksgiving.

Next Week : GOSPEL DIRECTIVES # 22