By ELISABETH ANN BROWN
WASHINGTON, DC – October 22, 2018 — What do you understand the meaning of stewardship to be? Is it purely a concept that you attribute to belonging to a church or a religious faith? Or is it something that, regardless of our faith or lack thereof, we should all work towards in our daily lives? Do you think that it is something that is denoted by philanthropic works or are there other meanings?
To me, stewardship means taking care of others and of things that are important to daily life. Whether or not you belong to a church, or even believe in God, we all have ways of showing that we care about the people around us and the world we live in. It is an ethic that we can apply to every aspect of our lives.
The word stewardship is derived from medieval times, when stewards were responsible for the household duties in castles, looking after the needs of the lords, ladies and the king. The term often appears in the history of England. Stewards were responsible for the smooth running of entire households. The term was eventually adopted by churches of different Christian denominations, and nowadays many people probably associate it with the financial obligations that come with running a church.
Sermons will also refer to stewardship in the sense that as true Christians we should be responsible for the world that God has created for us. As we can see today, with the rising temperatures around the globe we have what might seem to be a very daunting responsibility to try to do something to alleviate the effects of global warming, which currently threatens our very existence on this planet. Our planet depends on our stewardship of it.
Stewardship does not mean you have to put your hand in your pocket all the time to contribute to one cause or another. If you are able to do that, great – your contributions will be most valuable as well as commendable. But many of us are not in the position to help financially. Take a look around and see where in your community you might be able to help. Perhaps you have been blessed with the gift of a talent that you could use to improve the lot of someone who is in need. Or you might like gardening and have some time to spare to help improve a common area of your neighborhood, and make it a pleasant place for people to come and sit and share some time with friends.
One of the things that strikes me about our modern day living is how we have become so disconnected from one another. The digital age we live in has turned many of us into social media junkies, rarely taking time away from our handheld devices, smartphones, tablets, and so on. This disconnection affects how we relate to one another, and how we empathise with the needs of others on many levels. A quick text message saying “How r u?” has taken the place of a phone call or a visit to check on a friend or family member. We don’t even take the time to spell out the words.
Being mindful of good stewardship, it would be far more beneficial and appreciated if we took the time to call and find out if a friend or relative is free to meet for coffee somewhere or would like a visit to brighten their day. But it is far easier to absolve ourselves of the responsibility by saying “Well, I did text John today so he knows I’m thinking about him.” How impersonal. John might reply “I’m OK”, when he is really feeling rather lonely.
We put far too much store in material things for ourselves. It is easy to do this, as we are barraged on a daily basis by emails, ads on every web site we visit, store windows with tempting displays, and an array of posters and billboards everywhere we travel. We are being brainwashed into believing that we need to buy stuff. The fashion and beauty industries are especially good at this. One of the ways they try to influence us to buy more stuff is by offering to donate dollar amounts at the checkout whenever you run your credit or debit card. I wonder how many times people skip over that step in the process? Perhaps they feel guilty because they cannot really afford the extra few dollars and because the purchase they just made on their already overloaded credit card wasn’t really essential.
There are many ways we can become good stewards without having to be wealthy in our bank accounts. We can donate our time to a cause that we feel passionate about, or go on a sponsored walk or run, where our time and effort helps raise money from willing donors – perhaps to help fund research into cancer, or contribute to a homeless shelter. Do you enjoy interior decorating? That elderly lady down the street needs her front room painting with a nice fresh colour. How about giving some time to a local elementary school to help children who are struggling with reading and writing? Or at the old folks home – perhaps a game of chess or checkers with someone who doesn’t have many visitors to brighten his or her day. Even offering to walk the neighbor’s dog is a good act of stewardship.
Another aspect of stewardship is being responsible for the world we live in. We need to reduce our carbon footprint. It is so easy to jump in the car and drive the short distance to the corner store when it would be just as easy to walk. Plant a tree or two. Recycle all those plastic water bottles and cardboard boxes, and take your own bags to the grocery store instead of having your purchases packed in plastic bags. Some stores are charging a few cents for the plastic bags, but now there is a move to stop using them altogether. A lot of restaurants are doing away with plastic straws for drinks as well. These are small sacrifices to help our planet, and to be good stewards of our environment.
Technology has really moved us away from the old adage, “It takes a village to raise a child”. We live in communities but hardly know our neighbors, never mind their children. What would it take to get back to that way of life? Think about how much time you spend in front of a screen arguing to faceless strangers about the issues that confront the world today, instead of actually doing something about them.
Yesterday I spent the morning with a few thousand people who congregated near the Washington Monument for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. Some turned up with their dogs, some turned up in outrageous costumes, pink tutus and funny pink hats. The objective was to raise as much awareness as possible, to raise money for research and support for those who are going through treatment or have survived the ordeal of having breast cancer. I met some amazing people who have gone through a great deal, yet they still have that sense of stewardship, in that they put their time and energy into helping others who are travelling on the same path.
One of those extraordinary people that I walked with yesterday was Sheri Denkensohn-Trott. At the age of 16 she had a diving accident, and lost the use of her arms and legs. Despite her disability, Sheri pursued a career in law, and along with her husband, who is also disabled, started a web site called Happy on Wheels (happyonwheels.com), to assist and advocate for the very special needs of disabled persons. Sheri also volunteers with the Thelma D. Jones Breast Cancer Fund, a support group that I am also a volunteer with, and as an eight-year breast cancer survivor herself she is a very powerful and vocal advocate for the needs of disabled cancer victims. Sheri is living proof that no matter what life throws at you, if you throw yourself into life, you can achieve just about anything. She is also a shining example of what stewardship really means, and I am very honoured to call her friend.
Meeting people like Sheri has really helped me put my own life and stewardship responsibilities in perspective. I hope that you too will be so fortunate as to meet someone in your life who will inspire you as much.
