For centuries Lutherans have observed Lent with passionate devotion and prayerful attention to spiritual disciplines. These faith practices strengthen our souls and open our hearts to the resurrected Christ at Easter.
This year, try developing a sense of holistic stewardship for your life. Stewardship, of course, looks at how we use not just our financial abundance but all the blessings that God has given us – our health, our family and friends, our faith, our time, our intelligence, and so on.
Just as holistic medicine takes a “big picture” view of physical health as a dynamic interconnection of our body’s systems, holistic stewardship helps us see and appreciate all our gifts in relationship to one another.
For instance, how does your stewardship of time interact with your stewardship of your relationships or health? How might more-thoughtful stewardship of your time improve your relationships or your health? How might better stewardship of time, relationships and health improve your financial abundance?
When you examine your stewardship of these and all your gifts in dynamic interconnection with one another, you can find more meaning and purpose as a disciple of Jesus.
To get there, for the days of Lent focus on just five major categories of the blessings God has given you easily remembered by the shorthand word FAITH.
Family and friends — nurturing relationships.
Abundance — finance and material possessions.
Intelligence — your mind and special talents.
Time — living fully 24/7.
Health — physical and emotional wellness.
Spend 15 minutes every day to prayerfully ponder and meditate on these FAITH blessings. A prayer journal or notebook may help you process and connect.
- Take stock of your blessings in each category, thanking God for them.
- Reflect on how they interrelate to give you joy and purpose and meaning.
- Ask God to help you use these gifts more wisely and fully for God’s purposes.
- Imagine God blessing and enriching your life as you learn to steward these gifts in a way that they will support and enhance one another.
This Lent, let holistic stewardship help you envision your gifts and life more fully in God’s reality, the reality called the Reign of God. It’s the Reign that Jesus preached and proclaimed, and that he brought to fulfillment with the victory over death that we celebrate at Easter.
