The stewardship committee has chosen a theme for the upcoming year: the same as the title of this column “Gratitude: The Heart of Stewardship”.

As I contemplated this theme, I was attracted to the word “heart”. Heart actually means several different things. A good illustration of the various meanings would be the following sentence: The heart of the matter is that I don’t have the heart to tell him he has heart disease because it will break his heart.

Attend to the different meanings of the word “heart”: The core, central idea, or main thing of the matter, is that I don’t have the courage to tell him that he has a disease of the organ that pumps life’s blood through his body because it will break his emotional self.

So think about gratitude and stewardship. Is gratitude not the central thing or core of our stewardship? Is gratitude not what gives us the courage to embark on stewardship? What gives life and circulates the sense of commitment and a desire to practice stewardship but gratitude? And in the long run, isn’t gratitude one of the finest emotions that we can hold and carry with us?

Going back to the idea of heart as a life blood pump, I am also attracted to the idea that stewardship creates circulation. When we give our money, the portion that the church uses to support itself is going back into circulation in terms of salaries and payments to those who work for us.

The portion of our money that the church uses for charity goes into circulation in our communities and around the world doing good in God’s name. The same is true of our gifts of time and talent. When we usher or greet, our good will is being circulated among our members and visitors. When we volunteer for Vacation Bible School, our attention and love is being circulated to children in the community who are not necessarily part of our church family. The list goes on. The media people in our church who donate their time are circulating the church’s message.

And in the long run, isn’t it all about taking Jesus’ love, which we’ve experienced, and circulating it out into the world? It seems to me that we do that best by consistent stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.

Yours in Christ, Theresa Horton