It helps, now and then, to step back and take the 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 G-d'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 effect  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 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 the is 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 .      Amen