Joyful Generosity: Wise Stewardship of Time, Treasure, and Talent

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Christine Hoover
Welcome to joyful generosity when wise stewardship of time, treasure, and talent. My name is Christine Hoover, and I get to moderate the panel. And these are our two guests that we’re going to get to hear the most from Christy Anyubile right over here. And this is not Corey Porter. This is Megan Hill. Unfortunately, Corey couldn’t be with us, and so Megan is filling in, which is great. I think the Lord has something specific that Megan is going to share with us. Right, something wonderful. I’m going to let them introduce themselves in a second, but I want to start by just kind of getting a feel. As we’ve prepared for this, we’ve been thinking about you and why you signed up for this session specifically, and we want to be able to ask you a few things to help us to answer in ways that would help you. And so, I’m wondering, did you sign up for this session because you feel overloaded, over-engaged, and you would like to kind of have some wisdom about making decisions of cutting back or figuring out how you need to say no, or do you feel under engaged that you have time that you want to give, and you’re looking for wisdom to know how to do that? So raise your hand if you’re here because you feel overloaded, over engaged, and you need that kind of wisdom. Okay, and raise your hand if you feel like you’re here because you’re like I have time to give, I have things to give, but I need help thinking through how to do. Okay, we’re gonna we kind of both, so we’re gonna answer both of those. Also, just regarding talent, how many of you are like I know what my gifts are, and I’m trying to figure out how to use them, or are you thinking I’m trying to figure out what my talent even is and how to utilize that to serve the Lord. So, how many of you are here because you’re thinking, “I know what my talents and my skills are. Okay, that’s good. And how many of you are here because you’re thinking, “I want to learn what my talents and skills are and how God might use them” Okay, so that’s very helpful. It’s sort of helpful. It’s all mixed. We’re all here, but that will be helpful for us to be able to answer both, kind of from both perspectives. We’re so glad you’re here. I’m going to open us up in prayer, and then I’m going to have introductions, and we’ll just jump right in. So please pray with me, Lord. I thank you for this time for these women who, the very last breakout they are here and they’re ready to learn, and that says so much about them and their heart. And so I ask Lord that you would meet them where they are, the questions they come in with, the the the life that they come in with, the questions that they’re asking about what they need to do with time, talent, and treasure. Would you help us guide this conversation? Would you meet the needs and the questions in the room? So let your spirit be full, rich, working among us, speaking through us, but also speaking to each individual. Lord, we know that you are capable of that, and we’re so thankful. And so use this time to to bless us as we learn from one another in Jesus’ name, Amen. All right, will y’all take some time to just give us a brief intro? Christy, will you start?

Kristie Anyabwile
Hello, everybody. I’m Christy Anyabuile, and I live in Washington D.C. My husband is pastor of Anacostia River Church, and in Southeast Washington D.C. we have some of our church family here. And I’ve we’ve been in ministry about 30 years or so. I have three children. My older two are here, Afiya and Eden, and we have a son who’s 19 and a dog.

Megan Hill
I’m Megan Hill, and I am the managing editor at the Gospel Coalition. And I live in Massachusetts with my husband, who is a PCA pastor, and we have four children. And then I also do some writing and speaking work. If you got the free book yesterday, you actually own one of my books, which is super fun. So that Sabbath rest book is one of mine.

Christine Hoover
Amazing. I’m Christine Hoover, and I live in Austin, Texas. And I’m an Aggie who lives in Austin, Texas, and working with those girls on my church staff at the Austin Stone Community Church, I serve as a women’s ministry associate at my congregation, and I am married to Kyle, who is a pastor there at the Stone, and we have three boys who are 2320, and 18. And so my last one just graduated high school, so almost an empty nester, but not quite there yet. So I don’t know how I feel about it yet, but I do get to write and to teach not just on the side in my church, but also to women outside the church. So so glad to be here, leading us through this time. So we’re going to start with just a general question, and then I’ll let you know where we’re going with this. We’re going to spend some time talking about time, and then we’re going to spend some time talking about talent.

Christine Hoover
And then at the end, we’re going to talk about treasure. So each one of us are kind of taking a focus, and then the other ones will pipe in as as they have something to say. So we learned why people are here, which is lots of different reasons. But I would love for to start with just asking you both: How do you discern when you have so many good opportunities? Maybe there’s so many options at churches where women can serve. How can you discern, or how do you discern what is a yes or a no for you? I love that question. My husband and I thought about this a lot some years ago in trying to, you know, get our schedules together. Try to figure out what are good yeses, what are better noes, and we kind of came up with a series of kind of diagnostic questions. I guess you could say. The first one is this: Do I have interest, capacity, or relationship? So,

Kristie Anyabwile
do I have interest in this particular endeavor? Is it something that I feel a degree of passion about? Do I have capacity for it? Do I feel like I have time and energy to put towards the endeavor? And then, are there relationships that are important to me, that would be helpful in determining whether this should be a yes or whether it should be a no. Second question is: Does it fall within my area of knowledge, ministry, expertise, areas that God has entrusted to me? So, is the opportunity before me, something that I feel like I have words, wisdom that God has given me input into. People ask me to talk about all kinds of stuff. I am not your girl for most things. I have a few specific interests that I feel confident that the Lord has called and gifted me in, and so those are areas where I feel confident in saying yes. Outside of that, it’s more likely going to be potential no. Thirdly, will it benefit me personally? Will it benefit my church, or will it benefit other ministry networks that I’m involved in. So when I have an opportunity before me, I’m not just thinking about myself. I’m thinking about my church, and I’m thinking about other ministry partners that are important to me, and whether this would be a good opportunity to partner. And then, lastly, does it work logistically with other family and church commitments and priorities. Like even if I have time and capacity, even if it’s important to me, even if it’s an area where I feel like I have knowledge and input, does it actually work? If it’s during soccer season, the answer is no. Track season, absolutely no. You know. So just knowing where your family is, what’s happening in the life of your church, I’m going to prioritize my family, my church, and those things over any other type of opportunity. This is me personally. I’m not dictating to you your you know your questions, but maybe they’ll spark some questions that you need to use or that you would like to use as diagnostic questions for yourself.

Megan Hill
Christy, that’s super helpful. I feel like I should be taking notes up here, but I think that’s probably not. I’m not up here to take notes. I would say that for me, it’s also sort of four things, and you know, in some ways, it’s overlapping with what Christy said, but that’s affirming that we’re on the right track, right? But I would say for me, it’s prayer, counsel, need, and desire. So you know you begin with prayer. Lord, is this something? You know, direct me, move my heart. You know, open things up or close doors or you know, you you lead me in the path that you would have me go. I feel rebuked because I ain’t say prayer. We know you pray, Christy. And then, secondly, counsel. You know, asking a mature Christian friend, “What you know me? You know this opportunity. What do you think? Do you think this would be good? You know, if the Lord has given you a believing husband, ask your husband. I mean, it’s the greatest thing in the world to be a complimentarian. Should I do this? No, honey, you shouldn’t. My husband said I couldn’t do it. I’m sorry. You know that’s gonna be a no, right? So, but but getting seriously though, just getting counsel from other mature people that the Lord has put in your life who know you and know the situation and can speak into that. The third thing, need. You know, is is there a genuine need that you are able to meet and just assessing that is this you know people ask you to do things and sometimes it’s a you know it’s a want to and not a have to and my daughter’s preschool teacher a few years ago said have tos before want tos and I said oh I think I’m going to take that one so you know is this a have to is this something where there’s a gen. A need that that I can meet, and then finally, I do think desire. You know, is this something that I want to do? And I think some, you know, people can go various ways, but for me, I sometimes forget about like, am I actually excited about this? Is this something that I actually want to do? And yes, I mean, our hearts are deceitful. Sometimes we don’t have desires that are ordered according to the Lord, but the but we believe that the Lord has changed our hearts. He is working in us, and He does give us godly desires. And so, I think what we want to do is a valid piece. It’s the fourth piece, you know, but it is a valid piece of the question of of am I going to do this thing?

Christine Hoover
Okay, so thank you. Let’s let’s jump into time, and we kind of sort of are addressing that. But Christy, I would love to hear from you. What is the story that God is writing in your life right now regarding stewardship of time?

Kristie Anyabwile
Okay. First thing you need to know is I am someone who struggles with time blindness. Raise your hand if you know what I’m talking about. Amen. Yep. So I ain’t the greatest when it comes to that, but I but I have been learning a lot about myself and about how I steward my time. I’m you know an extrovert. I’m an enneagram too. If anybody cares or interested in that, you know, my default is helper. You know, if it’s something that I can help or feel like I can quote unquote fix, you know, then I’m willing to jump in there and do it. But what the Lord is teaching me in this time is that learning to say no is a spiritual discipline, and so at first I just thought about it as like you know I could say no or I could say yes. It’s kind of up to me, but I’m learning that it’s actually a discipline, and it’s not so much about time management. What I’m learning is it’s about theology. What do I believe about God? Learning to say no helps me to acknowledge my dependence upon the Lord, and acknowledging that I’m not ultimately needed to carry out the Lord’s work. He is going to accomplish His work with or without me, just because I’m free. This I’m giving this to y’all free because I got it from my daughter Fia a couple years ago, but it’s like it lives rent free in my head, and she’s like, “Mom, just because you’re free, it doesn’t mean you’re available, and I have held on to that. Just because I’m free doesn’t mean I’m available, and it doesn’t mean I’m the one. And so I’ve had to learn that it’s an act of faith. Saying no is an act of faith that trusts that if I say no, the Lord has another person. He has another way to accomplish His purposes without me, and that’s good and right. And it’s acknowledging that I am a finite being, and that limits are good, and that when I allow myself to have margin in my life. That that’s a gift from the Lord. It’s meant to be a gift from the Lord, and I think scripturally, where I I’m kind of building these thoughts off of is Ephesians five, Ephesians five verses 1516, where it talks about making the best use of time, and sometimes that means leaving space instead of filling space. So I think oftentimes we think that making the best use of time means that we have to fill every moment up with something. I’m a kind of person that’s like, I want every hour and minute filled up on my calendar. I want it all shaded in. I want to know exactly what I’m doing with my time, and that’s crazy because what happens is if something interrupts that, which y’all know life is going to life. So when something interrupts that, I have built no margin in my life, in my schedule, in my calendar to make a pivot, so then I’m stressed, then I’m anxious, then you know all out of sorts because I haven’t given myself the space or the margin to steward my time well, and so I feel like that’s that’s the story that is the Lord is continuing to write in my life as it relates to how I steward my time.

Christine Hoover
I’d like to ask for the people who raised their hand and said, “I have so much going on. I know I need to limit what I’m doing, but I don’t know how to say no. How do we say a kind and gracious no?

Kristie Anyabwile
No. So an example I give, I was, you know, some people would call you out the blue. You know, I’m a pastor’s wife, so people call out the blue, and this is one of my least favorite questions ever. Somebody call. And they’ll say, “What are you doing? Do y’all hate that question? I mean, first of all, it ain’t none of your business what I’m doing, right? Like that’s not that’s not what you really want. You don’t really want to know what I’m doing. You actually have a request, and you’re trying to front load it to see if you can, you know if I’m gonna say that I’m too busy or whatnot? But I feel like we don’t kind of owe people what our schedule is before they have a request. We have a right to decide whether or not we’re free and available for the request. So when someone says, “Hey, what are you doing? What are you doing right now? Now that means this urge like they want me to drop everything that I’m doing because they have something urgent that they want me to attend to, so my response is, “What do you need? What What’s your question? You know, so you don’t have to answer. What are you doing? Well, girl, y’all ain’t doing nothing. I’m sitting here watching Netflix, you know, because then if you say that, then they’re gonna want something, and you’re just trying to rest, and it’s your right to rest. So I think for me, I can feel guilty when I’m not quote unquote doing something and not recognizing that rest is important, and I owe myself rest. And if I have given myself the grace of rest, I don’t owe someone else that time. Does that make sense? And so, in terms of saying no, I’m not. I’m not telling you, okay, I’m not answering your question about how to say no. But I am. I’m answering the question of how to respond to people when they want to make demands on your time. So ask specifically, hey, what do you need? And then if they ask a question that, if they ask a question and it’s something that you don’t feel like you have time, capacity, or energy for, then you can say, “I’m not available. Because remember, just because you’re free doesn’t mean you’re right. So if it’s something you feel like you don’t have time, space, or capacity for, just say, “I’m sorry, I’m not available.

Christine Hoover
I’ve also found it’s helpful, you know, if somebody asks you something in person. This happens to me a lot as a pastor’s wife at church. They ask me something to do something. What I found is, is it’s helpful to just say, “Let me think about that, or “Let me get back to you, because my instinct is say, “Yes, I want to be helpful. I want to do that thing, and often I really actually do want to do that thing. But I need some time to know how does this fit in my schedule? How does this fit with what my husband has going on or my kids? And if I say an immediate yes, I’m going to keep my word, and so it gives me an opportunity to kind of step back and say, is this really something that fits within kind of the grids that Megan and Christy were talking about earlier, and if not, then I can go back and just say thank you so much for asking me to do do that, but I’m not able to do that, or my calendar won’t allow me to do that, or I’m not available. I found that to be helpful.

Kristie Anyabwile
One other quick thing on that is that in addition, if someone’s asking you like something related to church, for example, and they they they’re asking you a question. I don’t know. How do we turn up this AC? Because it’s cold in here. And I think sometimes it’s easy to say, like, you know what? I don’t know, but let me go find out. I’m gonna go find out for you. Uh-uh. You know what? I think there’s a maintenance person, or ask your elder or ask your Bible, whatever the question is. Point even if you have the ability to kind of go and seek it out. That’s not necessarily your default posture. It’s it’s. I think when you can point them in the right direction and equip them to be able to ask the right person certain types of questions, so you’re not kind of the default go-to person for every type of issue.

Christine Hoover
Well, let’s switch gears for the other side of the room, who are like, I have all this time and I want to use it to serve the Lord and to serve God’s people and my community, but I don’t know what to do with it. So I have an abundance of time. What would you say to women about how do we steward that? If we we have an abundance of time, how do we steward that wisely? Megan, would you have anything you would say about that?

Megan Hill
I don’t have an abundance. Okay.

Megan Hill
Yeah, I mean, I think that we see all of our time as a gift from the Lord, right? The Lord is the Lord of our time, and so whether we have five minutes one day, or whether we have a whole day free, we’re always asking the Lord. Lord, what would you have me do with this time and give me that opportunity? You know, I have a friend who was on the mission field, and she said every day she would get up and ask the Lord for a divine appointment. You know, Lord, send me someone that I can tell about Jesus. And I think you know whether on the mission field or not, we can pray, Lord, send me a divine appointment. Whether that’s somebody I can tell about Jesus, or somebody that I can serve, or somebody. And then when you go through your day, then you’re looking for what it is that the Lord has sent you, because He loves to answer that prayer. And so we’re looking, Lord, where’s my where’s my appointment? Where’s the thing that you’re going to send me? And then we receive it from Him.

Kristie Anyabwile
I think also if you have an abundance of time, I think it’s good to employ people around you who are confidants, who are who are friends, who are sisters in the Lord, and and maybe the Lord is clearing your schedule in such a way that He’s giving you opportunity to serve in community within your local church or within your broader community. So I guess I’m saying think categorically about Lord, how would you want me to use my time within the context of the local church? How would you want me to use my time within the context of my community, or in the context of my family. So piggybacking, but just thinking category, you know, in categories about areas in which the Lord may the Lord may call you to serve. And then sometimes it’s just, man, the Lord has cleared your calendar in such a way that some issue is coming up that you don’t know about yet, and now you have the opportunity to take that elderly sister to, you know, her doctor’s appointment, or to babysit for this family whose you know mom has is undergoing chemo treatments, or to clean the house for a single mom who’s working long hours, or to babysit or whatever else, so it doesn’t necessarily mean I need to start a whole new ministry because I got all this time. It’s just keeping that space open and available, so you can flex, you can move, you can go in like those short spurts of time where somebody just needs something all of a sudden, and you can kind of feel a need. So don’t feel like you need to fill that space immediately, is what I’m saying, but be aware that the Lord may provide these popcorn opportunities for you to serve.

Megan Hill
That’s great. Okay, so let’s switch gears to talent. Talking about wisely stewarding our talents, Megan. I’m gonna. We’re gonna focus in with you on this. What would you say to women in the room who aren’t sure what their gifts actually Are yeah, so you know all of these areas that we’re discussing today, whether that’s time or talent or treasure, all of those things are gifts that are given to us by the Lord. Right? We don’t have ultimate ownership of any of them. We don’t have ultimate authority over them, and so when we come to the question of what are my talents, or how can I use my talents? I think what we’re really saying is, Lord, how can I serve you where you’ve put me with what you’ve given me? You know, what? How can I? How can I serve you right now, right here? What is it that you want me to do? And I think that puts us in a posture of sort of thinking less of ourselves and thinking more of the Lord, of holding our gifts really loosely. Right? We’re not focused. We’re focused on looking for how we can serve God, not so much focused on ourselves or how you know what what we what our own priorities are. And so, you know, if we can lean into just serving God in this moment, I think many of our sort of frustrations, whether it’s we feel like, oh, I have all these talents and they aren’t being used, or it’s, man, I don’t even know what I can do. I think some of those things are lessened when we put our focus on, okay, Lord, here I am. What what would you do with me in this moment? And so I think it’s helpful for us to just sort of think: What are the needs around me? What are the unique circumstances in which you have put me today or this year in my community, in my church, where there’s something that I some way that I can serve the Lord? I think you can start with what are my gifts and with some self-evaluation. I think it’s good for us to understand ourselves and to know ourselves, but I don’t actually think that’s the most useful place to start. Sort of wait, let me figure out what my gifts are first, and then I’ll go look for opportunities to use them. You know, Scripture does give some lists of gifts. There are three lists in the New Testament of spiritual gifts, and the interesting thing about those lists of spiritual gifts is that none of them seem to be very exhaustive because one will have a certain gift and the other one doesn’t have that gift, and some of them are repeated and some of them are left out, and so it almost seems like those gifts. There’s one in Romans 12, one in 1 Corinthians 12, one in Ephesians 4. That those lists of gifts are almost just sort of like a starter, you know? Like like here are some examples. Here here’s a start, but but it’s not here’s the definitive list of gifts, and you figure out which ones are yours? It’s just sort of Paul saying there’s lots of gifts out there, and here are some examples of them. And so, I would just encourage you not to be quite so focused on let me figure out exactly what my gifts are, and more focused on Hey, here I am, Lord. What would You do with me? So, for example, I’ve seen this play out in my life in so many different ways. When I was a college student, I went, I attended a small church, and one day, you know, one of the women came up to me and said, “Hey, we need a Sunday school teacher for this second grade Sunday school class, and would you teach this class? And I had never taught kids Sunday school before, and so I taught it, and I was not very good. You know, I didn’t let them interact very much. I was really strict. You know, you’re a great parent before you have children, right? Like I, I knew, like I was serious about it. We were going to really study the Bible. If any of you kids are out there watching this on the live stream, I’m really sorry, but guess what?

Megan Hill
You know, as I taught that class, and then in the summer they actually asked me to teach VBS too, which is probably kind of crazy. But two things happened, right? A need was filled. Those kids did have Sunday school, and they did have a VBS teacher, which which they needed. So they did have somebody who was sincerely trying to teach them about Jesus, even for all my failings. So that was one thing that happened. The other thing that happened was I grew, right? Week after week, I got a little bit better at teaching second graders, and I started being a little more engaging, and I started letting them read the Bible text, and I started thinking of things to bring that that would interest them, and I started planning my lessons and not being so serious and having a little bit more fun, and so I grew. And then after that, then someone asked me to teach a women’s Bible study, and I went and I taught it. And guess what? I wasn’t very good at it, and I made a lot of mistakes. But somebody taught that week, and I grew a little bit, and so I think that as we look for what the Lord would have us do, we just have these opportunities. We feel a genuine need, and we have an opportunity to grow into something. Maybe I wouldn’t. I mean, I definitely wouldn’t have said it as a college student. Great, I am gifted to be a Bible teacher, but after teaching second graders and after teaching a women’s Bible study, then I have these little opportunities to think, okay, maybe Lord, you’re doing something. Maybe you’re teaching me something here, and I also want to say that I don’t think that stops. You know, those stories were when I was a college student, but it’s not that once you’re 25, then your gifts and your callings are set in stone. I mean, I am 47 years old and I’m still growing. I hope I’m still growing. I mean, I don’t want to be the same person 10 years from now that I am today, right? So, you know, last year our church desperately needed someone to lead the missions committee. Never led a church committee before. I’m a Presbyterian. I don’t know how I got away with it all those years because we do love a committee, but but I had never led a church committee. I didn’t know a whole lot about missions and how to support the work of missions, but somebody is going to have to lead this committee. And so here was a need, and so I did it. And guess what? A need was filled, and I grew a little bit. And I’m getting a little bit better at leading committees, and I’m getting a little bit better at recruiting people to do things and not doing everything myself and delegating. And I got a little bit better at understanding the work of missions. And I got a little bit better at casting a vision for God’s people of what’s being done. And so I think you know, going back to where we started, when you come to the question of how should I use my talents, I really think the fundamental question is, how can I serve God in the place that He’s put me with the things that He’s given me, and I’ve at least found that when I do that, then I’m able to fill some needs-not perfectly, but I can fill them, and that I do get a chance to grow.

Christine Hoover
I’m just thinking about when I was young, and I-I am-we’re talking about Enneagram. I’m an enneagram three. I’m a very ambitious, like achievement-oriented. So I had dreams when I was 22, 23, 24 of what I wanted my gifts to be and how I wanted God to use me. And so some of you may be feeling frustrated because you’re like, I think I know where I want to go, but God hasn’t given me those opportunities yet. And I would just say to you two things: one is that God never wastes a single thing. He will use that teaching two-year-olds in Sunday school. He will use a job that you hated to show you what you don’t like to do and what He’s not called you to do. He never wastes anything, and so the goal isn’t, oh, I’ve got to know what my gift is, and I have to be able to make that work and to kind of get on this path so God will use me. The goal is faithfulness. The goal is faithfulness wherever you are, and God will can always use faithfulness, and so that’s the call when, as you’re trying to figure it out, just be faithful where you are, and God will not waste that. And I was going to say another thing, and I forgot what it was. So if I remember it later, then I’ll I’ll bring that back up. But I think I love that Megan you brought up that this doesn’t end. It’s not like you figure it out. I still am figuring it out in some ways that God might bring a gift to the surface for a certain time of my life, and then He might bring something else to the surface that’s needed at another time of my life. And so, again, the goal at my age is still faithfulness to do what God has put before me. One of the things, though, I think is something I’m experiencing as I’m getting older, as my capacity is getting lower. So sometimes I I want to be able to do something, but my capacity is not quite what it used to be. So I would love for y’all to speak to that too. For those in the room who are like, I would love to be able to do all the things, but I know that God is kind of God is kind of laying some limits, and it might not be capacity. It might be caring for an aging parent or something that makes you have to lay some other things down that you really want to do. Can you speak to to that, Christy? Yeah,

Kristie Anyabwile
I was just thinking about that because I’m that person. I want to do all the things for all the people, but I’m limited. I’m finite, and that is good. And it’s a gift from the Lord. And I was just thinking over the years how the Lord has shifted my time commitments, and even what I thought were my talents or giftings. So I’m also I would also say like be open to the shift. Be open to the pivot. And whenever, okay. So I always like to say this: that over the course of my life, I can easily. It’s easy for me to get overwhelmed because I want to do all the things for all the people. And there are points when I don’t even realize that I’m overextended. So have people in your life who can say, “Listen, sis, you’re doing too much, or your husband, or whomever, like somebody that you trust to see things in you that maybe you don’t see in yourself, and can say, “You’re doing too much. You need to slow down. You know, you need to find a way to say no to something, and so I’ve had periods where people have done that for me and said, “I feel like you’re really overextended. You know, they can see your stress, they can see anxiety, they can see things being left undone, they can see stuff falling, you know, falling by the wayside, and sometimes you don’t see it yourself. And so when someone brings that up to me, I’ve had periods where I’m just like, “Okay, Lord, I’m overextended. I may not necessarily see it or see all the ways that I am, but I’m going to trust this person in my life that that is the case. And you know what I do? I cancel all of it. I’m like, you know what? All of it is going back at your feet, Jesus, because obviously I’ve taken on some things that maybe you had not necessarily called me to, and I just lay it all at feet. I start from zero. I’m like, okay, Lord, I am not committing to anything. I’m gonna say I have zero commitments. I’m gonna have a season of prayer, and I’m gonna ask you, what are the things that you want me to pick up? Do you want me to pick up any of these things that I just laid down there, any of them, he might like. No, I don’t want you to do none of that. What I really want you to do, you know, is way over here. So put that stuff down so you can do what I’ve actually called you to do. Or I’m like, you know, here’s 15 things down here, and the Lord might be like, you know what? Only two of them are essential. The rest of them, you know, I haven’t called you to. Somebody else can do it, so be open to the pivot in that way, and then the oh shoot, I forgot now I’m doing that thing about I just

Christine Hoover
talked about limits capacity when you want to be able to do something but you can’t. I think you’re answering the

Kristie Anyabwile
answer. Yeah, the other thing I was going to say is that when you have something that comes up in life that is very time-consuming and is very emotionally-consuming, that one thing is enough. If you have young children at home and they’re running around and you’re just trying to keep up with everybody, or you got a bunch of middle schoolers, and they all have activities, and then they all want to hang out with their friends, and then the school wants you to do all the things, or you’re homeschooling. That’s enough. If you’re caring for an aging parent, or you have someone living in your home with some sort of disability or intense need, sometimes those things are enough. And I would want to encourage you not to feel like I need to do more, because for most people, when you’re saying, for most people who say I need to do more, in my experience, those people are already doing enough. They’re already doing a lot. So I want you to feel free to say in this season for the the the sets of needs that are around me right now, that’s enough, and everything else, I’m going to have a gracious no and be okay with that until the Lord, you know, shifts me or pivots me in a different direction.

Christine Hoover
Megan, I’m going to shoot this question to you because for some women, they’re indicating that they they may feel underutilized. In their church, in their family, in their community, they they might know. And I’ve gone through a season like this, like later in life, where I’m very clear on how I’m gifted, but the doors are being shut, and I don’t have an avenue to use that gift. And the Lord taught me a lot through that, but it was really discouraging, frustrating, confusing. What would you say to women in the room who are like, “I feel like I know how the Lord is calling me to serve Him, but it doesn’t feel like there’s a pathway to use that. Let’s say in the church.

Megan Hill
Yeah, yeah. So there are two verses that I keep coming back to when I’m in that experience, and one of them is from First Corinthians 12, where Paul says that this is a passage about the body. But Paul says God sets the members in the body, each one as He chooses. So each person who is in that body in your church is chosen to be there and is set there by the Lord, and that’s true of those, you know, the people in your church. That’s also true of you. Like he has set you in that body, and he has put you there for whatever reason. So that leads me to trust the Lord, right? You have me in this church. You knew what this local church was like. You knew what the opportunities would be here or would not be here, and yet you set me here, and so I trust that you have me here for some reason. And maybe it doesn’t look like what I thought it was going to look like, but it’s not useless that I’m here. I’m not useless because God set me here. Then the other thing that I often think about is in Ephesians two. Then Paul writes about the good works that God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them, and so there are things that He has for us to do, and He’s not even just making them up as He goes along, right? He prepared them beforehand that we would walk in them, and so then that helps me to trust the Lord. Okay, you set me particularly me in this particular body, and also you promise that there are good works that you have already prepared for me to do, and so that brings me back to saying, “Okay, Lord, here I am. Give me something to do. And I think when that happens, then we see His hand giving us things to do because that’s a prayer He loves to answer because He has He’s got those good works ready, and he’s eager to answer it and give them to you. Even if they don’t look like what you expect, you can receive them as from his sovereign hand.

Christine Hoover
That’s really helpful. Okay, we’re going to kind of switch toward treasure, kind of wrapping things up. This has gone by so quickly, but we only have about 10 minutes left, and I just want to share that I love what you said about it. May not look like what we expect because I think a lot of times for me with anything, generosity, stewardship. I often think of things as mine. This is my gift. I own this thing. This is my money. I own this thing. It’s my time. I decide what to do with it, and I can either think that, or I can have a scarcity mindset that the resources are low. I have to protect that. I have to protect myself, my time, that kind of thing. And what has helped me a lot is is scripture. Second Corinthians eight and nine talks a lot about that God is generous toward us. That He became impoverished so that we could be rich, and that we are then given all by grace. Everything we’ve been given is by grace, so that we can then go and we can serve others. We can give to others, and that has helped me a lot because it reminds me this: there’s no scarcity. God’s resources are infinite. He He will give me what I need. I can trust Him to to direct my path to open those doors in the timing that he wants, and it may look different than my agenda, but it is his grace that gives me these things, and then I can go in that grace and I can give. And one of the things Second Corinthians eight nine, especially chapter chapter nine, talks about is that God is a generous God that this is who we are as believers. We reflect Him when we are generous with ourselves, with our money, with our time, with our talent, and in really in studying that, I realize God isn’t just generous; He is an investor. I live in Austin, where there’s a lot of startups, and people are investing in them, and they’re investing in them because they know that they’re going to make money. God is an investor; He invests Himself in us. He gives us His Holy Spirit. He gives us spiritual gifts. He gives us everything that we have: our time, our money, our talents. He invests that in us, not to bear spiritual fruit, but also He is investing in us for our joy. That’s why he says, “Be a cheerful giver, because he takes joy in investing in us that we would go and give to others. And that’s that’s been really helpful for me in kind of switching my perspective on who I am, what God has given me, and sharing that with others. Whether it’s money, whether it’s my time, whether it’s. My talent. So, Chrissy, I just want to one final question. As we’re thinking about generosity, we haven’t spent a lot of time talking about financial generosity, but I want to talk about like ways that you would encourage us to think about our time, our not our time, our possessions and our finances. How can we be generous with those things?

Kristie Anyabwile
So, generous with our finances, or in other ways outside of in other ways, or

Christine Hoover
how how do you view that?

Kristie Anyabwile
Yeah, well, I think first of all, everything that we have is given has been given to us, and the Lord is generous with us. He He gives us all things to enjoy. He gives us all things to steward for His glory, and when we have money, possessions, skills, talents, all of that, we hold those things with open hands. And many of us have, all of us have things that God has entrusted to us or given to us that are meant to be a blessing to other people if we’re willing to share them, and so some of that could be financial blessing. Some of that could be just opening our homes for fellowship. It could be lending tools and equipment. It could be sharing a vehicle, giving away clothes. You all know furniture, baby items, all that books, all that kind of stuff, or using resources that we own to meet a practical need. You know, in Acts two, where it talks about the believers having all things in common, and they shared what they had so that other people could be cared for, and so I think one thing I want to encourage is that the measure of our generosity is our willingness to use what God has entrusted to us for the good of other people, and I’ll tell you practically what that’s looking like in my family right now? We got a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff, and we’ve always said that in our marriage that we and I was telling my daughter this the other day, like we always had a rule that if books were involved, there’s there’s no budget. There’s no limit. Well, obviously there is a budget and a limit. But like generally, we go to a conference like this. You see a book. You like a book. You get a book. I have a lot of books, and my husband has a lot of books. And just in the midst of a lot of caregiving and paring down and helping, you know, family members with things like that. I realize, you know what? 90% of these books that are on my shelf, I’m never gonna read again. Why do I ain’t telling y’all what to do? I’m just telling you where I am right now. I’m like 90 of these books, 95 probably percent of these books, I’m never gonna read it again. Why do I have them on my shelf? Why don’t I bless somebody else who really would love to read this book that I’ve been blessed by, or a book that I have on my shelf that I never read, but I still have on my shelf. And so right now, I’m in the process of really just scaling back, paring down, only keeping things that I know that I’m going to actually use, and allowing myself to gift possessions and things like that, that you know someone else could benefit by and be blessed by. So I think, in terms of thinking about finances and things outside of finances, I think what generosity calls us to and what the Lord calls us to is being good of being as as good stewards of our possessions is being willing to give to give those things away or to share to share those things so that they can be a blessing to other people, and it could be your time, it could be helping someone with their taxes or finances, it could be a possession allowing someone to borrow a car for a season of time. Who’s in need, or just cleaning out that closet? Like, yeah, I know I’m trying to wait until I’m a size six again, but reality, that’s never going to happen. So give it, and even if it does happen, I’m going to buy some new stuff. I’m not going to use that old stuff that’s in my closet. Let’s be real. So why do I keep it in my closet, give it away. Let somebody have it and use it. Who’s going to be blessed by it right now?

Christine Hoover
That’s good. Yeah, hopefully you’ll walk away with that. If you’re free, it doesn’t mean you’re available. And generosity is for your joy. So go back to wherever you came from. Not yet. Stay for tonight and tomorrow, but go back and and hopefully the Lord has given you a little nugget that you can think of and remember and put into practice where you are. But joy, generosity is for your joy. All right, we’ll see you at after at the main session.