October/November 2010

Verna Dozier, the legendary D.C. teacher, preacher and advocate who not only pioneered new ways of studying and understanding the scriptures, but demonstrated unforgettably how those scriptures might be lived, had no formal theological training and was never ordained, but was honored as a theologian, biblical scholar and preacher. In encouraging all Christians to grasp and use the authority that was theirs through their Baptism, she famously challenged, “Don't tell me what you believe. Tell me what difference it makes that you believe!"

A nun once explained to me that she understood her vocation as simply what followed from saying “I believe.” Her vows spelled out the difference that made in her life, and guarded against the ways in which she tended to make substitutes for God. Obedience required her to listen to voices other than the one inside her own head, to always consider how God might be speaking through spiritual guides and circumstances outside her own limited experience and perspective. Chastity reminded her of her tendency to become immersed in relationships, to lose herself for a time in the created and not the Creator, and so become disoriented. And poverty guarded against her believing that there was anything she could own or possess that could save her or offer genuine security. All of this was, for her, the way in which she lived out her Baptism and responded to the profound pull of God on her soul.

The difference that believing makes in your life and mine may not lead us to the vowed life of a monastery, but in time the pull of God on our souls weans us off substitutes. Gradually we relinquish our monopoly on the truth and learn to listen and reflect and tolerate; we grow dissatisfied with political and strategic acquaintanceships and cultivate genuine friendships that feed and nourish our souls; we are freed from the desperate need to acquire and collect and instead begin to trust in God’s providence, and to perceive that all we have, and all we are, is gift. And I would suggest that all of this extraordinary growth in clarity and confidence is an expression of stewardship.

Stewardship is everything we do after we say “I believe.” Long before we come to consider finances and pledging, we reveal our stewardship in choosing which voices are reliable, which counsels are wise, in nurturing new relationships while treasuring the old, in trusting that God’s promises are dependable and that we are held safely in God’s embrace…and in all that, settling for no substitute for God, be that power or people or possessions. Stewardship is the difference that believing makes, both to us and to our world.

TPG+

To read other editions in this archive, please click here.