Perspective

I had lunch with my good friend, Sarah Knox Bush (wife, mother, author, speaker, prayer warrior) yesterday. She later sent the quote below, and I could not keep it to myself. I had to share. It is great perspective to keep when we get overwhelmed by life's choices, our "to do" lists, and the things we know are undone at the end of the day, the week, the year. It reminds me to focus on what I have done well, my part, knowing the rest is not up to me. What freedom this brings. I hope you enjoy it too!

It helps, now & then, to step back & take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. 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 another way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that should be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral vision brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals & objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about. We plant 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 beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything & there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something & to do 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 & 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 the Master Builder, ministers, nor messiahs. We are prophets of a future that is not our own.

Oscar Romero, martyred bishop in El Salvador