Prophets of a Future Not Our Own

It was a hard week. It was a hard week to love others or God. I was frustrated and angry and feeling a little gipped. I had a lot of, "I do all this stuff for people and they don't even care," sorts of moments. When I finally talked to God about this (it took awhile and a lot of talking to everyone else), he pointed out to my heart that the "I do all this stuff for people" part of my sentence was the problem. Not so much the "they don't even care" part, which was the part ticking me off. It's like he said, "Oh, I thought you signed up to work for me...and I care quite a bit." Oh.

Ministry is harder than I thought it would be. It's hard for me to not make it about me in my head. As I was praying about this, these words I read recently came back to me, and so I thought I'd share them here. I love this.

The kingdom is not only beyond our own efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s word.

Nothing that we do is complete.

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 includes everything that we are about.

We all plant the seed that one day will grow.

We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces efforts far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything.

Knowing this enables us to do something, and to do it well.

Our work may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way.

Our actions present 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 the workers, not master builders.

We are ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

Amen.

By Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of El Salvador (1917–1980)