One thing I learned writing a grant for the Lake Oswego Public Library for an Everybody Reads program: one hour of a volunteer’s time was valued at $17.65 – in 2007! Given the hundreds of volunteer hours donated by the St Michael’s community—including but not limited to choir members, bathroom remodelers, Vestry and Search/Profile Committee members, Wednesday volunteers, liturgical ministers, community meals—we are able to accomplish far more than what our budget alone can support.

This is an exceptional stewardship year, a year when we are living into our faith with hope and love as we go through a time of tumultuous change. As we consider what we will give of our treasure, let us also consider what we will give of our time.

Last week, Julia introduced Team LIFE’s 2022 stewardship education plan, with its theme, Rooted in Our Neighborhood, Branching Out in Love. This week we focus on L, for labor. One definition of stewardship is “everything we do with everything we have” – in other words, everything we do with our time, our gifts and our resources, including our work. Psalm 119 refers to the seven times a day that faithful Jews offered praise to God, and those in monastic communities often speak of their work as prayer, intentionally weaving work and spirituality.

While away on vacation last week, I was blessed to ride some of the best rollercoasters in the world, at Cedar Point in Northern Ohio near my hometown. My husband and I are theme park megafans, and I can honestly say there is almost nowhere I find more joy than at the top of that first big hill, about to slide 200 feet toward the ground at a hundred miles an hour. But before the big thrill, after they strapped us into our seats, the click-click-click of going upwards toward the top always makes me ask myself, ‘Lord, what have I done? This is a terrible idea!’