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Good Intentions

1/27/2023

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I get why they say it. I’ve said it too. When good ideas go bad, or when I or someone I’m counting on doesn’t finish something we’ve started, it’s easy to think good intentions don’t count for much. But I’d much rather work and be with people who have good intentions than bad ones.

I’m not sure I could ever choose to be friends with someone who didn’t have good intentions. Except for Cathy, I didn’t get to choose my family. Since I didn’t get to choose them, I am eternally grateful for the good intention of every member of my family.

The reason the word “intention” is on my mind this week is because my dad had a mass offered with an "intention" for my mom yesterday.

The Catholic church has a long tradition of offering Mass for the dead. St. Monica’s one dying request was supposedly, “that you remember me at the altar of the Lord wherever you may be.” Theologians may argue, as they always do, about the spiritual significance of something like a mass intention, but what is not debatable is that my dad’s “intention” was good. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to get to Indianapolis to attend the mass.

It is my mom’s birthday today. Though it was a cold snowy day when I visited her gravesite, my heart was warm. One of the things I never doubted was my mom’s intentions for me were good. One of the greatest blessings in my life is to have had a mom, dad, and family who have had good intentions. Even if none of us have been perfect, knowing that we have each other’s best interests at heart makes all the difference in our family.

I hope you have surrounded yourself with people with good intentions, even if they aren’t perfect. Let’s do our best to keep our intentions toward others good, even those we have a hard time with. They may say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but I’d much rather journey this life’s road with people of good intention.

And for those of us who believe in God, our belief about His intention toward us is critical. I pray that we know and experience more and more that His intention is good, and that it paves the way to heaven not hell.

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More than Enough

1/19/2023

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Cathy used the following graphic on the bulletin Sunday for her message titled “More than Enough.”

The picture captured what my desserts have looked like the last several months. I keep trying to finish the cookies and desserts we have in our house, but as soon as I get close to finishing them, family, friends, or our church members give us more, far more than enough!

Cathy’s message wasn’t about cookies, desserts, or any physical thing. It was based on Paul telling the church of Corinth that with God and other members of Christ’s body, they had everything they needed. In Paul’s words, they “lacked nothing.”

After working a combination of full and part time jobs between us for many years, including being responsible for something almost every weekend and many nights, Cathy and I have decided to work less this year. I have started looking at information on retirement.

There are many things to consider when someone makes the transition, but do you know what is by far the #1 question asked for people considering retirement?

“Do you have enough money?”

It is not “What do you want to do?”, "Who do you want to spend time with?”, “Where would you want to live?”, or “Who do you want to be?” It is, “Do you have enough money?”

Of course, money matters! According to many financial advisors I don’t have enough money. However, I have more than the average American. Many people don’t have any money saved for retirement. According to global statistics, I am rich compared to most people in this world!

How much money is enough? That is a question that applies to more than retirement!
Jesus talked a lot about money and material possessions. He knows money is important. But money is amoral. Money itself isn’t either good or bad. Money is just a tool. It is how we think about money and how we use it that matters. Money may be the #1 thing people think about as they get ready to retire, but there are many things more important than money.

I imagine things Jesus might say to me as I think about whether to retire.

1. It’s not really your money anyway. It is a gift from God. He’s given you an opportunity to use it for a little while longer.

2. Be a wise steward but be as generous as you can. Helping others is one of the most important things you can do with money.

3. Worrying about money doesn’t help! Be grateful for what you have, whether other people think it is a little or a lot.

4. It is OK to enjoy some of it. (This one may be hard for some of us!)

Ultimately, Jesus might say not to worship the money but to worship with the money.

Cathy’s picture of the cookies reminded me of the many family and church gatherings I have enjoyed. At almost every one of them I will say something like, “No one is going hungry today!” In our family and in our church, there is always enough. In our family and in our church, if anyone really needed something and we knew about it, between us, we would have enough to help.

I know some of us are facing or will face tough financial times. Many of us have had tough financial times in the past, but there was always enough to make it through the day. I pray with God and the people He puts in our lives, we know we have more than enough.

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Everyday Epiphanies- “Good Eyes”

1/12/2023

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Cathy joined the Facebook “52 Week Photo Challenge” group this year. Since we aim to hike at least once or twice a week this year, Cathy decided to combine the weekly photo challenge with our hike. Here is the list of challenges for each week.

You see that this week’s challenge is titled “Ground Level.” So, yesterday Cathy got down on the ground and took this picture on our hike.

We have walked by this moss at the root of the tree dozens of times before, but we had never seen how beautiful it was against the background of tree and sky at ground level. Cathy took this pictures at the very beginning of our hike! She also took these pictures of fungi we have walked by many times.

One of our goals this year is to slow down and look for the beauty that is everywhere around us. Unfortunately, not everything we look at is so beautiful. Another report on children’s media viewing came out recently. Research shows a high percentage of children are seeing increasing amounts of pornographic, violent, and anxiety producing images. These images impact children’s brains, often in quite detrimental ways. Though children are more susceptible, what is true for them is true for us as well.

This year our church is taking up a 52- week challenge of our own. We are reading through the New Testament together this year. Whether you are part of our church or not, I invite you to take the challenge too. There are only 5 chapters a week to read, and you can do it at your own pace. While many people in our church have read the New Testament, the challenge is to read a short section each day with new eyes. Here is a link to check out Cathy's first post with links to the challenge and guidelines: Bible reading challenge.

This week our reading included the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel. I’ve read this portion of the Bible dozens of times, but I had an epiphany this week. Right in the middle of Jesus preaching on storing up treasures in heaven instead of earth, and serving God, not money, we get these two verses:

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” -Matthew 6:22-23 (ESV)

These verses always seemed to interrupt the flow of Jesus’ sermon. Jesus is talking about possessions and money. What’s with the eye comment? I got eye meant more than eyeball, but it didn’t hit me until this time how important the way we see everything is to Jesus. How we look at things matters. It matters a lot! As important as what we look at is, the “eye” we see it with matters even more. What we see impacts our brain, yes, but how we see it impacts our lives. How we see things impacts others’ lives as well. Healthy eyes here means generous and pure eyes. In Biblical times “eye” could mean heart. How we “see” our money and material goods makes a difference. How we see ourselves and others makes a difference. What we watch and the eye we use to see it makes a difference.

How are your eyes doing this year? Are they “good”? Are they generous? Pure? Are they “dark”? What we look at this year, and even more importantly, the “eye” we use to see things will makes all the difference in how the year goes.

I encourage you to see things anew this year! I hope we all might see even the everyday things in 2023 with healthy eyes.

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Good Intentions

More than Enough

Everyday Epiphanies- “Good Eyes”

Jeff Stueve

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