GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP ...
OTHERS
October 2005
article for the Collect, publication for St. Thomas Episcopal Church,
Medina, WA
My Mom was a twin. Not only did she have a twin brother, but they also had an older set of twin siblings. There were two other kids in the family besides. Five of the six children were in diapers at one time.
This was all happening during World War II, when rationing was in full force. Maybe that made it easier to go without things sometimes. All I know is that, somehow, this family of eight got by on one Baptist pastor’s salary. And every time that paycheck came in, ten percent of it went straight to the church.
When my parents started teaching me about stewardship, they used this story to illustrate a point. We all get anxious about money; who doesn’t? Even if we know we have plenty of it, we have big plans for it. We don’t like paying taxes because we know we could spend our money more effectively than the government does. Well … OK, maybe we wouldn’t give as much of it away. But we would certainly use that money well, and we’d have total control over where it went!
Anyway, I think my mother’s story gets to the heart of money anxiousness. Her parents chose to tithe right off the top and not to let it worry them. And guess what? They always had food on the table, and all the kids who wanted to go to college had that opportunity. God’s math is different from our math. God’s math is all about faith.
A survey taken in 2000 found that 75% of Americans believe the phrase “God helps those who help themselves” comes from the Bible. Sorry, folks: that quote actually came from Ben Franklin. Furthermore, I believe that phrase is patently anti-Christian.
Let us assert instead, “God helps those who help others.” My wife and I are finding that the generosity of our friends and our two faith communities has provided nearly every material need for our brand-new daughter, Sarah Sophia. God will bless all of those who have given generously to ease us into parenthood. That blessing might come in some material form, but it probably won’t.
I think the healthiest attitude to take about money is to not give it much thought. Yes, we should be responsible with it, of course. But when all the money coming in the door seems to be going right back out, my wife and I try to remember, “It’s just money. We’ll make more.”
So money is part of the equation of stewardship. So, too, are time and talents, and time is the fluid medium in which God lets us use those talents. I recently calculated that if we gave God ten percent of our time, it would come to 16 hours and 48 minutes per week.
(Hmmm, let’s see … that’s an hour for church, plus an hour for the Sunday forum. An hour driving the kids back and forth from Youth Group … an hour volunteering for something God would approve of, like tutoring or something … OK, let’s get ambitious and say twenty minutes each night using the daily lectionary to read through the Bible … what are we up to now?)
Luckily, God doesn’t measure our time this way, and we shouldn’t either. We don’t need to segment our lives into “God-time,” “family-time,” “friends-time,” and “me-time.” All of it can be God’s time, because when we catch the spark, our entire lives can be infused with the Holy Spirit.
The thing to remember about stewardship is that everything we have comes from God. By doing good things with our money, our time, and our talents, we give back to God. Being a part of a faith community means making at least a small money commitment; the commitment is more important than the amount.
Add to that all the little ways we honor God in our lives, and we find we are being good stewards of God’s gifts. That means being good to God’s creation, to each other, and to ourselves. Stewardship is all these things and more.