Day 102 May 10, 2009 (Sun)

A FUTURE NOT OUR OWN

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 small 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 could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection...

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about:

We plant the seeds that will one day 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...
We are prophets of a future not our own.

-Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who was assasinated for speaking up for God's Kingdom and justice in 1980