Waiting for ‘it’ to happen

Stewardship is one of those subjects of confusion and anxiety for some people because they can’t really get their hands on the topic, what it means, what it demands, and how it can benefit one’s daily life. Stewardship is not something we can go to the store or to church and purchase, follow a few simple steps, and then expect to live happily ever after. Therefore, when some people hear about anything that has to do with stewardship, they just sit back and wait, hoping that they can ignore the message long enough for it to just go away.

For others, though, stewardship is a welcome invitation to grow in our relationship with Jesus, to live the lives of Christian discipleship that we were called to in our Baptism, and to recognize this journey as a life long lived experience. It is the opportunity to grow spiritually closer in our relationship with God and knowing that each of us has been blessed uniquely with gifts that we can share freely with others is the prize.

Bishop Gilmore spoke to us at the recent stewardship conference, building upon his earlier conversations with us, about his vision for all of us to grow in Holiness. He spoke about personal vocation and how each of us has a unique calling that can only be brought to fruition through a close spiritual relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I also recently had the opportunity to hear Bishop Eugene Gerber speak about the spirituality of stewardship. Bishop Gerber shared some stories about his time as our bishop and the people and events of both his life and the lives of others who shaped his understanding of stewardship. These true life stories demonstrate the humor of life, the heartaches of life, as well as everything in between, and how each of us is really being called by our loving God to be His instrument of evangelization every day.

The common thread in their messages, as you might imagine, is prayer and a conscious effort to include God in everything we do each and every day. You see, if we are to truly be the Christian disciples that God is calling each of us to be, we cannot just sit back and wait for it to happen or for it to just go away. I’ll be the first to admit that it is difficult to keep my focus on building my relationship with God so that I can be a better steward of those gifts He has entrusted to my care. We live in a materialistic society that tends to rob our energies away from our relationships with God.

Whenever a person who truly believes stewardship is a way of life relates their story, that person speaks about a close spiritual relationship with God, not just praying an occasional prayer when we need something, but rather a deep, challenging and ongoing dialogue with Jesus each and every day. Just this weekend at church, a priest and two women from Wichita came to the Cathedral parish to begin the process for initiating Perpetual Adoration in Dodge City. They shared their stories about how they have grown in their relationship with God as a result of Perpetual Adoration and invited each of us to experience this same growth in our relationship with God by also participating. I know that other locations in the diocese already have adoration in place and truly believe that the men and women participating have been blessed by God as a result.

Each day on television or in the newspapers, we are reminded of the lack of Christian living and the moral decay that is occurring around us and throughout the world. Our church leaders continue to share with us ways in which we can positively effect these negative happenings. The opposites of our faith and of much of our society continue to stretch our minds in different directions. We can just sit back and wait for things to happen or to go away, or we can actively pursue a different course of action with Christ’s help. Which are you doing now? Which do you want to be doing tomorrow?