Stewardship today: A call to carry on

by Guest blogger

In 2017, we started over as we do every year that we continue living. We keep going in our daily routines, weekly schedules and life patterns.

But life can bring interruptions likes bad health, accidents, job losses, disasters, marriage crises and aging parents. We must get ready for these new and uninvited changes.

I heard in a sermon some 50 years ago: Daily we get up and get in our boats and row through the order of events. We do this  without thought. This pattern prepares us for whatever comes.

If the day brings us something new, we are ready to keep rowing and continue fulfilling our call to duty and service.

I’m going to call this “stewardship today.” A calling to carry on. We’re trained and practiced so–ready or not–we follow through on our mission. We set our sights ahead to the shore we want to reach.

[bctt tweet=”We can’t let the interruptions of our days hamper our goals.” username=”womenoftheelca”]

We can’t let the interruptions of our days hamper our goals. In stride, we pick up those crosses of extra duties. We carry on.

Jesus followed the stewardship of carrying on. He looked forward, not backward. He comforted, taught, fed, healed, listened, challenged and loved.

That is our stewardship mission also as we take comfort in God’s love for us. God will never stop loving us even when we go astray or are lost and weary.

God said, “I am with you to the end of the age,” and we must carry those words with us in the boat daily as we row, anticipating change, taking on challenges.

Just as God is with us, we are to be with others to help support and encourage them. Stewardship today–carrying on–is our promise to uphold and share.

Think of the times when you were down, and someone stood beside you. They were there, so you were not alone. You may have been afraid, not knowing where the day would lead you. But you were not alone.

“I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.” Psalm 16: 8-9

How do you carry on? How do you practice stewardship today?

Margo Holzman is on the board of South Central Synod of Wisconsin Synodical Women’s Organization. She wrote this stewardship devotion for the SWO’s newsletter, The Trumpeter.

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Photo by David Straight | Unsplash