As I was contemplating what to write about this week, I asked my family for suggestions. They jokingly suggested that I could write about what we were having for supper or about our daughter’s recent knee injury. It was said that I could find a way to tie in the concept of stewardship to just about anything. Obviously they were being kind with their comments as I’m sure they were thinking that I was full of something other than stewardship wisdom. Their point, though not serious, was true. The concept of stewardship can be talked about in the context of just about everything going on in our daily lives.

Imagine for a moment your favorite food or meal. Perhaps it is pizza, steak and baked potatoes, lasagna, or meatloaf. You might have a favorite kind of soup, salad, pie, or ice cream that you enjoy with this meal. There are many varieties of these foods, and the recipes used to prepare these entrees vary from one cook to another. So it is with stewardship, we all have been blessed with different talents and levels of treasure in this world and each of us will take a different combination of talents, time and treasure and will create our own understanding of stewardship. No two meatloaf recipes will be the same and no two people will understand stewardship just the same.

Each of us has been called to Christian discipleship through our Baptism. This discipleship is what stewardship is all about, living our lives as much as possible in the way that Jesus did. Many will look to the Bible as their recipe book on how to be a good steward. Others will learn the example of stewardship as a result of watching the actions of another person in much the same way as some of you may have learned a prized recipe as a result of watching the example of your mother or grandmother.

We are all on a journey of stewardship in our daily lives. There are times when we are more conscious of God’s presence in our lives than others and there will be times when our journey seems to be going more backwards than forward. However, it is at times such as these that we must trust more fully that God knows what is best for each of us and that we are living our lives according to God’s plan rather than our own plans.

It is difficult to understand the reasons that certain events take place in our lives and we often find ourselves questioning God by asking why something may have taken place in our life or in the life of a loved one. All of us have experienced at least one of these times during our lives — perhaps an illness or death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or a catastrophic event such as a tornado, fire or flood.

Recently one of my daughters injured her knee playing basketball, which is one of her favorite sports, and it appears that it will be a while before she is able to return to the court. Our first reaction when she hurt the knee was normal. We wondered why did this have to happen to her or anyone else for that matter and how long would it be until she can play again.

In the stewardship class that I have been teaching this semester, the class participants were asked to comment about these times. Some felt it was much easier in these helpless times to place their trust in God while others were searching for the rationale for these events. As we grow in our relationship with Our Lord, we will be able to give ourselves completely over to God who will help us navigate through these difficult times on His course, not our own.