I'll believe it when I see it

This is not the first blog I've ever started. Oh no, not by a long shot. You see I have a history of starting things I can't or won't complete. I have HORRIBLE follow through. I'm perpetually the girl who cried wolf in regards to the plans I make for my life. My sister knows me well and will call me out on it, sometimes painfully. Back in January a friend of mine decided to get a team together to play soccer in a coed recreational league. I jumped at the opportunity to fulfill a few of my new years resolutions (be adventurous and get outside your comfort zone). I rambled on and on telling Stephanie about it and asking her to join and gushing about how we would get to wear shin guards (!). Her response? "I'll believe it when I see it." Ouch. My feelings are hurt every time a comment like that is made, whether it's from family or close friends...but at this point, they're justified in those words. Every year I have a laundry list of ideas on how to make my life better, ideas on how to change the world, ministries I want to start or join etc etc...but here is the point; here is why I almost never follow through: because I want to do EVERYTHING. Not only do I want to do everything, but in my ridiculous (albeit, well intentioned) reasoning if I don't do these things, I think they won't get done! 


I recently read a quote from Oscar Romero that kicked that ridiculous idea right out of the park:

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 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 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.

I'm starting this blog because I'm tired of only being a consumer of ideas. I want to challenge myself to let my spiritual imagination loose. I want to join the dialogue of the many voices out there who are acting as their one part of the body of Christ and are doing it very well. God may not be depending on me to save the whole world but He did create me uniquely for a purpose. These are my musings as I stumble along my way. 

Side note: I actually did join the soccer team...and I get to wear shin guards!