'Tuesdays with Morrie':

		Stewardship  Corner  Jay Conzemius

A special book to me is Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, the true story of a successful sportswriter's re-acquaintance with a beloved and terminally ill college professor named Morrie.

More is not good

One chapter, The Eighth Tuesday -- "We Talk About Money," has an excerpt that I think we can all benefit from reading:

When people die, you always hear the expression 'You can't take it with you.' Morrie seemed to know that a long time ago. 'We've got a form of brainwashing going on in our country.' Morrie sighed.

'Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that's what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it -- and have it repeated to us -- over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this he has no perspective on what's really important anymore.

'Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I am sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much you have.'

I think my grandmother understood what Morrie was talking about when she told me, "I've never seen a U-Haul behind a hearse." Material possessions do not come with us when we die.

Life of generosity

Wasn't this same idea expressed by Jesus many times to his disciples? For me, this excerpt asks people to think about their priorities and consider a whole new way of life, which is one of generosity, one of stewardship.

When we understand stewardship as a way of life, it becomes easier to see money not as a necessary evil but as a gift, something we can share not out of obligation but out of responsibility to the one who gave so much to each of us.

Jay Conzemius is director of stewardship and development for the Diocese of Madison. For further information on charitable gift annuities, contact him at 608-821-3040.