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.
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 already
planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that
will need further development.
We provide yeast that
produces 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 not our own.
--Bishop Ken Untener,
The Romero Prayer,
written to inspire
pastors,
but full of wisdom for all
who are endeavoring to
bring about the kingdom of
God.
