Winston Churchill once said, “I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” If you seek to live your life under the authority of Jesus Christ and show the world that He really does care through you, then when you meet your Maker, on the day your faith becomes sight, He will gladly meet you and welcome you with a word of resounding affirmation, “Well done.” And who knows? The books may be opened and you’ll be invited to review what you did across the span of your life to make a difference and hopefully, at the end of the narrative about what you did, you’ll read some concluding words that may go something like,
“And God saw that it was good.” Sound likes
Genesis 1, doesn’t it? What you do can be good. But it is up to you. It is up to you.
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Born in 1917, Oscar Romero was named Archbishop of San Salvador in 1977. He was a voice for the voiceless in the Latin American nation of El Salvador. He boldly challenged the government’s mistreatment of the people and became a thorn, so to speak, in the side of the military government. On May 24, 1980, while saying Mass in the Chapel of the Carmelite Sisters’ Cancer Hospital in San Salvador where he lived, a single rifle shot was fired from the rear of the chapel. Romero was struck in the heart and died within seconds. Reflecting on his own ministry, shortly before his assassination, the 20
th century martyr observed, “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 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 realizing that. This enables us to do something and 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. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between The Master Builder and the worker. We are workers not The Master Builder. We are ministers and servants, not The Messiah. We are all prophets of a future that is not our own.”
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