Something Beautiful for God: The Logic of Self-Stewardship, part 2

Posted by Daniel on Apr 17, 2012 in Stewardship, Talents | 0 comments

There’s a logic embedded in this notion of self-stewardship.  It goes like this.

1. God has made me in his image and likeness, with intellect and will, with freedom and responsibility.  Everything I am, have, and am capable of doing is God’s gift.

2. The law of all visible life, including mine, is growth.  Unlike other life-forms, I as a human person can exercise voluntary and deliberate freedom to choose and to act—to determine the direction and pace of my growth.  My growth is by and large not inevitable.  I can envision the growth I wish, I can choose it, and I can act on it.  God’s gift becomes my task.

3. My free, voluntary, and deliberate actions from moment to moment determine the shape of my life–how I invest my capacities of body, mind, and spirit; how I participate in the process of becoming the person God created me to be.  I’m like a fine sculpture in the making.  Each free and responsible act chisels something outside of me, in the world I inhabit and, of equal importance, each intentional act shapes my very self.

Something Beautiful for God: The Logic of Self-Stewardship

Posted by Daniel on Mar 13, 2012 in Hope, Stewardship, Talents, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Think for a minute of someone whom you consider to be a good and accomplished person, someone worthy of your respect.  It might be a figure from history, or from your own life.  Consider what makes him or her the person you admire.

Undoubtedly, this person has chosen, again and again, to become the kind of person you find attractive.  A mature, balanced, accomplished human being is a “work” of intentional decisions and actions—not an accident.

I think of John Paul II, whom I have admired since the early 80’s when I returned to the faith of my birth and upbringing.  From what I observed and read about John Paul II, he was the most intentional of men, using his time and talents wisely and investing them for the good of others.  (John Paul often used the term, “a person for others,” referring to a person who is capable of giving himself to others freely.  He epitomized this term.)

John Paul II was a man of excellent life-long self-stewardship.  He knew who he was, what he’d been given as intellectual, spiritual, physical, cultural, and other gifts; and, he carefully, methodically developed his gifts for God, the good of the People of God, and indeed all people.

The phrase “self-stewardship” has an inherent and compelling logic about who we are, how we grow, and our responsibility to cultivate our gifts.

Consider the often-quoted parable of the talents in the Book of Matthew, chapter 25.   It tells the story of three stewards, who received various talents (monetary units)—one, five, and ten.  As you remember, the stewards who received the larger amounts, five and ten, returned them doubled to their master.  The steward who received one buried it.  Here’s the hard dialogue between the steward with one (buried) talent and his master.

His master said to him in reply, “You wicked, lazy steward!  So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter?  Should you not then have put my money in the bank so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?

“Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.

“For to everyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

This parable speaks to the gifts, skills, talents, and resources that God has entrusted to us.  What could be more within our control and sphere of responsibility to invest wisely than our very selves, our capacities of body, mind, and spirit?

Choosing Hope Over Fear, part 2 of 2

Posted by Daniel on Feb 28, 2012 in Anxiety, Hope, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Specific to the third point—choosing faith over fear—are five related steps.

 1. Through prayer, define and hold God’s vision for your life that maximizes your abilities of body, mind, and spirit.  What are you best at doing?  What gives you the greatest satisfaction when you do it?  What, in a word, are your unique gifts and talents for making the world more God’s?

 2. Pray bold prayers that trust that God is supplying everything you need to fulfill this vision.  After all, if it comes from God and God is all-powerful, there’s every reason to believe that this vision for the life God wants you to lead is happening already.

 3. Declare God’s goodness and mercy—even aloud—as a testimony of your faith and your trust in God.

 4. Trust that everything is happening as it should.  God is in charge.  He has you in the palm of His hand.  Worry and fear achieve nothing; instead, what’s needed is trust!

 5. See adversity as a stepping-stone to realizing God’s vision for your life.  Like David who faced Goliath with a sling-shot and five smooth pebbles, you’ll address the challenges of your life that appear to be keeping you from realizing your full God-given potential with a kind of divinely empowered ease.   Instead of stumbling blocks, your adversities will become stepping stones towards becoming the person God created  you to be and become.

Suggested Action

+       Review the vision that God has for your life, as you discerned it through Integrity of Life.

+       Pray boldly for His vision to become your reality.

+       Declare God’s goodness and mercy, including His vision for your life, as yours. 

+       Remember that you are a child of God, with all of the privileges and prerogatives of this unique status.  (As Mother Teresa reminded us:  Jesus thirsts for you!)

+       Keep going!  Even when adversity threatens your confidence, see it as a stepping-stone to become the person God created you to be.

Choosing Hope Over Fear, part 1 of 2

Posted by Daniel on Feb 24, 2012 in Anxiety, Hope, Uncategorized | 0 comments

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  

–John 16:33

We often underestimate how much God wants to do for us.  God is a wonderful Father, who desires only the very best for His children.  And, in God’s case, He has infinite resources to bestow on His children!

Three considerations about hope

Here are three basic reflections on our human condition and hope:

1. Life and its adversity can wear us down, cause us to lose hope, enthusiasm, and a sense of God’s destiny for us.  We can lose our spirit of trust, hope, and confidence.

2. We need to seek God’s help through prayer, because God is and must be the Source of our hope.  Then, supported by God, we can do our part to fan the flame of faith, love, and hope into a real fire of loving trust and confident hope.

3. To sustain this “flame,” we need to make a determined effort to choose hope over fear.  Jesus, as He promised us, has overcome the world (cf. John 16:33).  What’s needed is trust.

“I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing…Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life span? If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?…seek first his kingdom of God, and these other things will be given you besides. Do not be afraid any longer.”                     

–Lk 12, 22-32

Coming soon: Choosing Hope Over Fear, Part 2: Five Related Steps

Welcome to Integrity of Life

Posted by Daniel on Jan 30, 2012 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Our site is under construction…please forgive the gaps! More information to come…

In the meantime, feel free to contact us!