Why Give? Daniel Leger

What do Jesus’ words “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21) mean for you, your life, and your faith?

How does is affirm? How does it challenge?

Throughout stewardship season at Trinity we’re featuring the giving stories of four church members.

Here Daniel Leger shares why being able to give to Trinity Church is such a special thing for him.

Why Give?

Daniel Leger writes: 2015 was for me and my family our own “annus horribilis”. In the spring of that year, I had a very painful bike accident, followed that summer by an even more unpleasant Achilles heel rupture while playing softball at a camp with my daughters.

Finding myself hobbling in a boot, I began to attend services for the first time at Trinity. It had been many years since I attended church regularly and I found in then Reverend Bannon’s sermons an inspiring message of hope and grace that I had previously been too busy to hear. Eight weeks later, in late September of 2015, my wife Mahoney was diagnosed with a virulent and incurable form of gastro-intestinal cancer. Aging and death are two things that, surely, most of us would agree are best left to a distant and future date. And yet here they both were at my doorstep.

Daniel & family at Highclere Castle, England, home of the TV series “Downton Abbey”

For the next four and a half years, the weight of the world at times seemed to rest on my shoulders. The urgency of the present need to care for my sick wife became entangled with the future dread of being left a single father forced to raise our twin daughters alone. All the while, there was food to be put on the

table and a professional career that required attention. Sundays in the pew were moments of quiet personal reflection for me. I become close during this period with Reverend Ed Miller with whom I would meet frequently.

His door was always open and his counsel always wise. Together with the support of the Trinity community, I found solace in the routines of the church and hope in the message of Christ.

My wife was not terribly religious herself but as her disease took its predictable toll, she reached out to many spiritual leaders of various faiths. It was at this time that I introduced her to Reverend Miller. She and Ed had some of the most interesting and philosophical conversations about God and His presence in our lives.

While she had always had a strong sense of His direct presence in her life, there were times during her illness where she felt forsaken by God. Why was this so, she asked? I will always remember how Ed answered this impossibly difficult question: in our darkest moments, he said, as our senses become overwhelmed by the grind of life’s troubles or by the pain of a terrible disease, God may choose to come to us through unexpected messengers that remind us more clearly of His love and grace. At the very moment that Ed spoke these words, our daughters returned home from school.

My wife passed away in November 2019. She did so in peace and with equanimity, comforted by her conversations with Ed, a life well lived, and children well raised. Her service was held at Trinity.

I give of my time and money to Trinity to repay in some small way the fellowship that was offered to me and my family during our time of need.

Daniel Leger We hope that through the testimony of Daniel and other members of the Trinity family, too, you will be encouraged in your giving and generosity.

This year we’re delighted that completing your pledge form and setting up your giving is fully integrated and completely digital! It really couldn’t be easier!

Visit trinityupperville.org/pledge to make your 2023 pledge today.