Dear Friends,

I may have sent this prayer to you before, but I wanted to resend it before our annual meeting next Sunday, the 9th of February. We have just finished our annual report which has gone out earlier today via email and we will offer as a hard copy this Sunday morning for you to take home and look at.

This prayer is attributed to the late Archbishop Oscar Romero, another of my spiritual heroes. Romero was the Archbishop of El Salvador from 1977 until his assassination in 1980. This was a very turbulent time in El Salvador’s history. Romero spoke out against the social injustice and violence that was escalating between the military government and the left-wing insurgency, also called the FMLN. This violence led to the Salvadoran Civil War that lasted nearly 12 years. Military operatives loyal to the El Salvadorian government assassinated Romero as he was celebrating the Mass on March 24th, 1980. This prayer has always helped me keep things in perspective and as we move into another year together, I hope it will do the same for you:

Here is Romero’s Prayer:

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 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 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 the 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 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.

Peace,

Dave.