A NUDGE OR A FLICK?

            When I’ve discussed listening to God, I talk about what I like to call the “Holy Flick”. What’s that you ask? I don’t know if you ever experienced someone flicking you on the forehead—maybe to get your attention or maybe to inquire what you might have been thinking? Not something we really appreciate, is it?

            So what is a Holy Flick? That’s what I picture when there are the times when I chose not to listen to God, or to even push back against God. I pictured his listening to all my arguments and then giving me a flick on the forehead to say “are you listening?”

            In reading one of the daily devotions in “A Generous Life-28 Days of Devotion”, I read something that struck me. I was written by Sanford D. Coon. The title of that day’s devotion is “The Divine Nudge”. The devotion said “it dawned on him that he was focused on himself, not on God or the provisions that God persistently makes for him. That’s how God expresses his love for me, he realized.” The devotion went on to quote fourteenth-century Christian mystic, Meister Eckhart: “And suddenly you know: it’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.”

            As we are about half-way through our summer, and, hopefully, are thinking and planning for the fall’s stewardship campaigns in our churches, how is God nudging us toward something new? How can we focus on God and not on ourselves.

            I encourage you to consider these questions and find a way to ask your folks these questions as well? What is God calling us to? Are we ignoring the nudge and the flick?

 

Feel free to contact me at sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com or susanranous@unyumc.org

 

                         EXPRESSING GRATITUDE

            So how are we at expressing gratitude? I’d like to think that when someone gives me something or expresses something positive, that I say thank you. But I don’t know that I really do that. I think I’m more inclined, when someone compliments me to say “oh this old thing—I’ve had this top forever or do you need new glasses?” Also, when someone gives me a gift, I feel guilty receiving it and immediately start to think what to give the person in return, instead of just saying (and meaning) thank you.

            Completely the opposite of how we sometimes approach gratitude, there’s Paul. He new hardship, imprisonments, stoning, shipwrecks, beatings, hunger, but he wrote, while he was imprisoned the following words: 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)

            Have we considered being content in what we have and thankful for what we’ve received?

            How are folks in your church. Are they expressing gratitude and thanksgiving? Look around. Who is giving their:

·         Time

·         Groceries for the hungry

·         Service on committees

·         Their spiritual gifts

·         Their financial gifts

            Too often we are too focused on the negative and ignore the positive. It’s that way in our lives, and it’s that way in our churches.

 

Look around and see what God is providing. Be thankful. Express gratitude.

 

Feel free to contact me at sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com or susanranous@unyumc.org

 

                                           WHAT IS A STEWARD?

            I have a devotional book sitting on my desk at the church. I usually only have office hours one day a week, so I don’t read this daily. The book is Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News about Living a Generous Life by Mark Allan Powell. Chapter 2 starts with a verse of scripture: Think of us this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mercies. (1 Corinthians 4:1).

            We talk about stewardship in the church, but I think we focus on it as a way to raise money. Are we really practicing stewardship? Are we stewards? Remember, God created everything, so that means we don’t have ownership; we are only stewards. If you hired (or asked) someone to keep an eye on your home when you’re on vacation, they are a steward of your stuff. They don’t own it; their only responsibility is to make sure your stuff stays safe and is in the same condition as it was when you left.

            I think we forget that we are stewards. Too often, we forget we’re only stewards and start to think that the property entrusted to us is actually our own.

            We are stewards of what God has done. We didn’t choose to be. We just are. Don’t feel bad; I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. How about if we look at being a steward as something better than just a hired hand? What if it is part of our calling as Christians and disciples? God has entrusted us with caring for God’s creation.

            “We are the agents through whom God has chosen to bring about God’s purposes: love and joy and peace.” [1]

            Look around God’s creation. How can we be God’s agents?

            Look around the church. How can we be God’s agents?

            Look around what you have “control of”. How can we be God’s agents?

            Don’t focus on how what you see betters your life and you. Try focusing on how what you do with it changes lives.

            So what do you see?

 

Feel free to contact me at sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com or susanranous@unyumc.org

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[1] Giving to God, p. 29