Stewardship

I have been asked to briefly share some thoughts about Stewardship.  Why do I (and I think I can speak for my family as well) participate in church ministries?  In answering that question two things immediately come to mind.  The first follows a literal definition of the word Stewardship which is being responsible for taking care of something we do not own.  In this case we don’t own anything; it is all God’s creation.  Do you remember that old adage when we borrow something, or spend the night at someone’s house, or go camping? Leave things in better condition than we found them.  Hopefully when we give back our financial blessings and spend time using our God-given talents participating in church ministries, and in our daily walk for that matter, we are giving God that respect for His creation.

The other aspect of participating in ministries that immediately comes to mind is answering the call to Jesus Great Commission.  Through efforts like the library, the WOW ministry, the Stephen ministry, Childrens’s Chapel, Promise Keepers, we are spreading the word of Christ to others as we try to make disciples of all nations.  With the folks over in Zambia right now, and all the other ministry efforts, this congregation truly is spreading His word to the ends of the earth.

Jesus promised He would be with us always until the end of the age and I can see it happening during our ministry participation.  I have never come away from nor heard anyone in which I have participated in ministry efforts with say well that was a waste of time.  Even in financial stewardship, more often than not when talking to someone about tithing I hear about stories of financial blessing that follow their financial gifts.  There are no guarantees for any of that, but to quote a line from a recent sermon and the first sentence from a famous book, it is not all about you, or in this case us.  It should be all about Him, all about God.

No magic this time

Well the Caps and Flyers playoff series of 2008 actually came down to an overtime in game 7, just like their series in 1988.  In fact, the Flyers took a 3 games to one series advantage before the Caps won games 5 and 6 to force a game 7, just like 1988.  However this time around the Flyers scored the winning goal in overtime of game 7 to take the game and series.  No Dale Hunter magic for the Caps this year.

Memories from 1988

Except for my wedding and the birth of my son, one of the greatest moments of my life occurred in April 1988, when Dale Hunter scored the game winner in overtime of game 7 to complete a 3-1 playoff series comeback as the Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers that night 5-4. The victory was especically sweet as the Caps had in previous years lost playoff series to the Islanders after having been up in the series 3 games to 1, only to lose 3 straight games and thus the series.

Fast forward to 2008 and the Capitals, after 3 straight years finishing last place in their division, and in last place as of December 30 this season, played great hockey the rest of the season and went from worst to first, winning their division on the final weekend of the regular season. Who might they meet in the first round this year? The Philadelphia Flyers! How might it end? Who knows, but here is a clip of the series ending goal from that great game two decades ago:

Jeff’s Blog

I wasn’t sure what to call this blog and nothing cutesy came to mind, so I’ll stick with a pretty basic title.  I hope to use this forum to capture personal thoughts and moments that may be of interest to others and for my own personal recollection in the future.  The latter reason becomes more important with each passing day as my old memory banks keep dropping information.  So maybe by documenting some of the interesting things that come along in my life, it is kind of like saving things on a backup disk for later recall.