Tag: stewardship

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Journal Wisdom

My Lenten Journey toward De-accumulation

My shop's not this bad yet but...
My shop’s not this bad yet but…

 

A Different Lenten Journey

When the purposes pursued during Lent carry over afterward, that is a salutary sign that a fuse has been lit for something good.   I hope so because, like most Americans, my office and closets and garage have been getting more and more full, and this in spite of the fact that I tried very hard to downsize when we moved a couple years ago.  Allow me to explain more fully.  It is customary among Christians to give up something for Lent as a discipline of self-denial.  In other years I have fasted one day a week or given up a favorite food or added devotional time.    But this year, I felt I needed to do something different.   I decided to tackle the problem of accumulation of things that plagues Americans, me among them.

Accumulation is too easy

Now, I’m  just middle class, and I can’t afford to shop much, but if I buy a book here, a tool there,  a few folders for the office, something for my Christmas display, I’m adding things to my possessions.  Then I receive a few clothes for Christmas, and maybe another shop tool.  Perhaps I see a steal of a deal at the one or two summer garage sales I stop for.  The result– adding on a few more things.  Now I don’t have or need any rented storage units as many Americans have, and I can still park a car in my garage if needed, but I decided that it was still time to turn the tide and make a deliberate start at de-accumulating.

My Lenten goals toward de-accumulating

So for my Lenten journey, I set a goal to get rid of at least forty items from at least 7 different areas of my life.    It took me a couple days past Easter to finish, but I exceeded my goal both in numbers of items and in numbers of areas affected.   However, I did discover that it was one thing to identify items as extra and ready to be disposed of and another to actually make them disappear.  For example, I have two old computers still to take to recycling and I have a stack of books removed from my shelves but not yet taken away.  I guess that’s one reason that de-accumulation has to be a continuing discipline.

Steps

  1. Convince yourself that de-accumulation is desirable and necessary.
  2. Identify things that are excess in obvious areas first to get the ball rolling.
  3. Allow the habit to spread into areas you had not thought about down-sizing.
  4. Keep track of progress for encouragement.
  5. Set aside things to be de-accumulated that cannot be immediately disposed of.
  6. Carry through with plans for these identified items.
  7. Question some underlying purposes that have driven your accumulation.

 

Benefits

There have already been some good side effects of this effort.

  • I like most industrious people had more projects in the works than I could ever do.  I have already deliberately discontinued one of my big some-day projects and am questioning another.
  • I have reduced clutter which is an encouragement to continue.
  • I am creating space to better work on current activities.
  • I can sense a narrowing of focus for my energies.
  • I believe I have also started a mindset that will help me to continue to pare down inessentials and focus my life more effectively.

 

 

Categories
Journal Meditations Wisdom

A 10 point strategy for dealing with the many charitable requests we receive?

Question:   One of my parishioners recently wrote me about a dilemma that is certainly common to all of us today.

“I received email from 6 organizations wanting donations from me today. This is pretty much a daily happening and it’s causing me mixed feeling. The question is how do I handle this situation? I have my pet charities; but I don’t feel I should support them all.   Some of them do grab at my heart when it comes to children and animals, and even disabled or blind vets.  The list is getting longer and I feel guilty when I discard them. This is not counting the many calls I get via phone – please give me some advice.”

Answer  from the Pastor’s Desk:

It is unfortunately part of the modern world that we are able to receive so many calls for donations. As you mentioned, some come by phone and some by email, not to mention TV.   Many come from automated mailing systems.   I’m sure before long they will figure out how to send them in other ways as well.   Even at church we have plenty of fund appeals. There are twin spiritual and emotional dangers. On the one hand, we can become overwhelmed by them and laden with guilt so that we hardly know what to do.   On the other hand, and this may be even worse, we can become immunized by the barrage of them to the point that our compassion atrophies and we can no longer respond when we should.

Here is a strategy that I recommend that I believe will allow us to respond in compassion appropriately while protecting ourselves from overload.

1. Pray about where God is calling you to help.

2. Then choose a few charities that are very reputable and that deal with issues that are dear to your heart.   Use your passion for issues and world needs as a guide.  For example, if you feel strongly that you would like to eradicate cancer, then you might choose the American Cancer Society as one of your charities.

3. The number of charities you choose may depend on your means but for most people, I think it will probably be from 3-6. Keep the list small enough so that you can respond occasionally to all of them every year.   Don’t worry if you don’t respond to every call. I don’t think anyone does that. Most of us can’t.  Married couples may decide to each add some favorite ones to a joint list or they may each have their own.

4. Your local church will likely be your number one charity.

5.  I recommend that all Christians in developed countries like ours include at least one charity that ministers to needs in the third world in their list.   It might be UMCOR or World Hope (the one JoAnne and I have chosen), or Samaritan’s Purse or World Vision, for examples (Gal. 2:10).

6.  Consign all other email solicitations ruthlessly to the junk email box. For most of the repeated ones, you can get your browser to do this for you before you even see them. Trash both email and snail mail from other charities without even opening it.

7. For phone calls, tell the person up front if their charity is not on your list and if they won’t take “no” for an answer, they deserve a hang-up.

8. The fact that you are obeying God in generosity to the charities you have chosen helps you to not feel guilty in disregarding the others.  Seek to be at peace with your level of giving.   God does not want you to feel burdened with guilt about it but to be a joyful giver (2 Cor. 9:7).

9  Follow faithfully the charities that you have chosen, allowing God to use you to help them.  Read their materials and become knowledgeable about them.

10. Annually evaluate your overall participation in your chosen charities.   If you do taxes, that is a natural time to evaluate.  Your ultimate goal as a Christian steward is God’s well-done for your handling of the wealth he has entrusted to you.   A term that I have found helpful in measuring my response is to ask whether or not I have been generous.   God loves generosity and his economy rewards it.   As the Proverb says, “The generous will themselves be blessed” (Pr 22:9 NIV 2011).

Categories
Journal

A recommended way to help Japan

Sometimes people ask a pastor for a good charity to give to in a crisis such as the one in Japan. I sent a donation today to World Vision, an excellent Christian charity I have known about for many years that is already at work in Japan. You can see a video report of what they are doing by checkng this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_SooP8pVqs