This was not the way I intended to spend my day! Recently, instead of my set plans, I had to rescue my sister after the car she borrowed from me broke down. We spent the day catching up on many tasks still waiting to be done from moving our mum into residential care and that had been delayed by COVID-19 restrictions.
For a while I feared my car was going to be too costly to fix. Fortunately, by the end of that day it had been repaired and we collected it – and handed over far more money than I planned to spend!
Nothing about the day happened as we intended, and yet we were able to spend rare time working together, problem-solving and enjoying time together.
How often do our days or months or even years not end up the way we hoped or planned? Sometimes it feels like life has broken down like the car and is being carried off where we didn’t plan. But that is only our small point of view. The following words from Archbishop Oscar Romero offer us a wider perspective.
It helps, now and then, to step back
and take the long view.
The kingdom [of God] is not only beyond our efforts,
it is 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 could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No programme accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and 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
and there is a sense of liberation in realising 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 God's grace to enter and do the rest.
Reflect, today, upon how willing you are to embrace sacrifice in your own life. No, your sacrifices are not able to save the world by their own merit, but if you face your crosses in life, be they big or small, and if you intentionally and wholeheartedly unite them to the actions of Jesus that first Holy Week, then you can be certain that you will suffer with our Lord. But you can also be certain that your suffering will be transformed by the power of this Holy Week and lead you to a glorious sharing in His triumph over all sin and suffering.
Who doesn’t love a story? Hope, conflict, wonder, desperation, loneliness, surprise, love, a hero. Story seems to be wired into our DNA. We all tell them, and we find many ways to do them.
The act of making a pilgrimage – traveling to a sacred place to encounter the divine – is ancient, probably as old as humanity itself. Perhaps the first Christian pilgrimage was that of the Wise Men, men who were not even believers in the Messiah, but who knew that “something” drew them from their homes and studies. Unsure as to what they sought, they found not a someTHING, but a someONE: Christ the Lord.
I love this quote from Romero. It sits nicely alongside the quote from Barth in With Love to the World today — which said " Grace evokes gratitude like the voice evokes an echo: gratitude follows grace like thunder follows lightning." With thanksgiving we pause to give thanks to God for the small, yet signifiant parts we play in the great scheme of things.
Dear Wendy,
Thank you so much for this timely reminder that, when all is said and done, the work of the Kingdom of God is not about me! It is good to be reminded that, while I bring all that I have and all that I am, it is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in partnership with all God's people that I play my small part.
Thank you so much for this timely reminder that, when all is said and done, the work of the Kingdom of God is not about me! It is good to be reminded that, while I bring all that I have and all that I am, it is under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in partnership with all God's people that I play my small part.