It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.
I have read this prayer countless times, but so easily find myself loosing sight of the themes that it highlights. Today I was sitting in Helena's version of a "coffee shop," a bed and breakfast that the owners graciously opened and allowed some TFA folks to spend their Sunday afternoon working. Because I for some reason woke up and worked from 1 AM to 5 AM Sunday morning, I had most of my work done, so I took some much need time to write, pray, and reflect. It never ceases to amaze me how we marginalize and set aside the most important aspects of our lives and replace them with stresses about menial tasks and unimportant frustrations. I haven't written on this blog in awhile for a multitude of reasons, but one of them is that I've found myself constantly working, and constantly pushing myself harder to achieve results. Today I find myself realizing that it is impossible to pour out without investing time to fill myself. For those to whom I haven't spoken recently who are yearning for answers to more detail oriented questions such as, "How is your new job? What has the change from the public school to the charter school been like?" I unfortunately do not have fully formulated answers to those questions. The short of it is that I enjoy what I am doing. Its hard work, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Today I rest in the fact that my sole efforts have never and will never bring about the change that I desire to see in my students and in the life of this county. I rest in the fact that I am doing substantially important work that will never be complete. I rest in the fact that I am a worker, not a master builder. I'll let the rest of the prayer take it from here....
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future that is not our own. Amen.
