I found a piece of paper in a box I was unpacking this weekend and memories flooded back to a time in my life that I don't look to highly upon. A time where a few stuck-up, snobbish individuals took over a wonderful church full of many truly genuine people. However, my experience did not only teach me about who I am in when faced with challenge, but also gave me a gift in the form of the trip of a lifetime. I had the chance in 2004 to travel to Nicaragua to be a part of a mission trip for feeding programs and community building construction. It changed my life in many ways, some that I forgot for a while but have resurfaced recently. Nothing spoke to me more than the children that we served, but a sheet of paper also changed my life whether I realized it at times or purposefully forgot it at others.

This sheet of paper has a prayer written on it by the Archbishop Oscar Romero. I hope that it speaks to you like it spoke to me again today.

"It helps, now and then, to take a step back and take the long view.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our effort,
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 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 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 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 also 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 that is not our own."

Til Next Time,
Suze