Lent is a time and opportunity to focus on our relationship with God. The traditional disciplines of Lent – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving – also align with the stewardship message of living a life of gratitude and generosity.
Through prayer and reflection we may learn what in our lives we can diminish or even rid ourselves of that which pulls us away from God. We can then find space to embrace those things that bring us closer to Him. Our life becomes less about ourselves and more about living like Jesus – for others.
The familiar stewardship trio – time, talent, and treasure – can inform our focus and prayers.
We may use Lent to reframe our time. We can adjust our family’s schedule, creating one that is simpler, and shifting to what truly matters, and brings us closer to God. We may find time for daily reflection, Scripture reading, prayers, and family conversations.
To be a Christian steward includes having compassion towards others, especially the most vulnerable. We can be Christ-like by providing our expertise to help others, perhaps in a way that we have been “meaning to do” for a while. Saint Helen’s Goods & Services auction, benefitting the Elizabeth Coalition to House the Homeless, provides a very tangible way to commit now to share expertise or experience.
Taking stewardship to heart, we can see our possessions, including money, in a new way – through a lens of what we truly need, rather than what we want. We may reflect on, “What do we own…and what owns us,” and perhaps make a change.
Overall, Lent’s message of reflection and repentance provides an opportunity to consider the ways in which we steward our limited time, our gifts and graces, and our money and possessions, out of reverence and love for God and for neighbor.
