My Blog

Tag: time

  • Cultivating Fruitfulness: The Practice of Extravagant Generosity

    Since Easter, we’ve been reflecting on five practices that are vital in fruitful congregations. This week, we focus on the fifth practice, Extravagant Generosity. Robert Schnase says, 

    Generosity describes the Christian’s unselfish willingness to give in order to make a positive difference for the purposes of Christ. Congregations that practice Extravagant Generosity provide ministries that address our spiritual need to give in ways that exceed all expectations and extend to unexpected measures. Fruitful congregations thrive because of extraordinary sharing, willing sacrifice, and joyous giving out of love for God and neighbor.

    Through the practice of Extravagant Generosity, we offer our resources in a manner that supports the causes that transform life and relieve suffering and that enlarges the soul and sustains the spirit. God uses our giving to reconfigure our interior lives and form us anew.

    Later this year, you will be invited to consider extravagant generosity toward God and the Church in relation to your material treasures. During the month of June, we will be conducting a parish-wide initiative that focuses on stewardship of time, talent, service, and witness as we invite you to get involved in one or more of the ministries of this parish. If you are already involved, great! This may be a time for you to consider serving in another way or a different way. If you are not involved, this is a time for you to consider ways you can lend your time and energies to the impact of St. John’s on the community and the world.

    Our catechism in The Book of Common Prayer teaches us that, “The Church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members.” That means every member is a minister. Each one discerns the ministry to which he or she is being called by God in a particular time and place. When God calls a person, God also generously provides the resources that are needed to serve in generous ways, working, praying, and giving for the spread of the kingdom.

    In the short time I have been at St. John’s, I’ve heard some say, “It is difficult to get people involved.” But I’ve also seen how quickly and generously so many have stepped forward when invited to take an active role in the Church’s life and ministry. I am banking on that observation to be the rule and not the exception in this vibrant parish!

    We have distributed brochures with the invitation, “Get Involved.” In the brochures, you will find brief descriptions of many of our committees and ministry groups, along with a response form you may use to indicate your interests. This brochure and response form are also available online.

    Take some time during the coming month to read the brochure. If you see a place of service that seems to be calling your name, ask God if it is a ministry in which you can be generous in service to Christ and his Church. If you believe God is calling you to serve in this way, indicate that on the response form and send it in. The vestry’s discernment task force will be in touch.

    I’ll see you in Church!

    Ron Short Sig Blue

  • Enemies of Discernment: Time

    Unlike our Creator, human beings are finite creatures, bound by time and space.  It seems that we have either too little time or too much time.  We arrive early or late, but seldom exactly on time. Time is a facet of human life and we will always have to contend with it, even if we are blessed with a smartphone. Because of that fact of life, time is one of the enemies of spiritual discernment.

    We had a very nice chain of department stores in Texas called Joske’s. Once, when Gay and I were visiting San Antonio, I had failed to pack any underwear in my suitcase.  Not a problem!  There was a Joske’s store near the Alamo where I could buy what I needed. 

    But when we came to the display where the men’s underwear should have been, they had nothing remotely near my size.  I asked the sales clerk to check the inventory.  She said, “It’s no use.  Everything we have is on the shelf.  It’s been this way since we started using the ‘just in time’ approach to our inventory.” 

    As far as I was concerned, it was “time” and the system wasn’t working for me. We went to J.C. Penney and found what I needed.

    When things don't happen on our schedule, or we find ourselves feeling that the time's not right, or we have too little time for discernment before a decision must be made, or we feel that discernment is taking too long, what’s new?  Time is a factor of human life and there is no escaping it.

    Here’s the good news; God knows how much time we have because, after all, God created us.  So, when we are dealing with God, besides chronos, the time we count with clocks and calendars, we are also granted kairos, the kind of time God seems to like best – the “right amount” of time.

    The biblical number forty is often used to signify a kairos experience.  The Great Flood lasted forty days and forty nights.  God’s Hebrew children wandered in the wilderness for forty years.  Jesus fasted forty days and forty nights and stayed with the apostles forty days and forty nights after the Resurrection.  In every case, the biblical account seems to say that these incidences took exactly the right amount of time.  And God never shows up late!

    When we set out to spend time in spiritual discernment, we have a natural impulse to take hold of the problem of time by the wrong end.  We think of time spent in discernment as our time with God.  I invite you to consider that time spent in discernment is God’s time with us.  With all God has to do throughout the cosmos, God makes kairos for us when we are facing a decision that requires spiritual discernment.  If somebody shows up late for such an appointment, it’s not going to be God.

    After complaining about how little time God gives us, the Psalmist prays, “So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart” (Psalm 90:12).  In other words, since this is the way things operate in God’s administrative policy, we need to be careful to put whatever chronological time we have at the service of the God of kairos, who has a way of making just the right amount of time to accomplish the divine purpose in our lives.  For, as the Psalmist points out, “a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night” (Psalm 90:4).  God's time is not measured by our standards!  We spend time.  God makes time.  It's an important distinction and those who are wise recognize that distinction when engaging in spiritual discernment.

    God has made time today for you to spend in discernment.  How will you spend that time?  My prayer for you today is that you will devote whatever time you have, whether it seems too little or too much, to spiritual discernment with the One who has the power to make it just exactly the right amount that is required.

    The English hymn writer, Isaac Watts, paraphrased Psalm 90 in his great hymn, O God, Our Help in Ages Past.

     

    O God, our help in ages past,
    Our hope for years to come,
    Our shelter from the stormy blast,
    And our eternal home.

    Under the shadow of Thy throne
    Thy saints have dwelt secure;
    Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
    And our defense is sure.

    Before the hills in order stood,
    Or earth received her frame,
    From everlasting Thou art God,
    To endless years the same.

    A thousand ages in Thy sight
    Are like an evening gone;
    Short as the watch that ends the night
    Before the rising sun.

    Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
    Bears all its sons away;
    They fly, forgotten, as a dream
    Dies at the op’ning day.

    O God, our help in ages past,
    Our hope for years to come,
    Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
    And our eternal home.


    Ron Short Sig Blue