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 this.
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.

This is part of a prayer composed by Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw titled “A Future Not Our Own.”  The whole is worth reading (click here).

As we do, we construct meaning from powerful words like these that connect and make sense of our own experience. I grew up in a family of secrets.  I learned how to be self sufficient so that others would consider me strong and reliable so the secrets remained safe.  It’s taken me many years to realize that and how trust is not just about trusting God but trusting other people who have given me every indication that they are trust worthy.

Even though I sometimes falter, I know I am capable; I am productively aware that I cannot do everything. I only catch glimpses of the sense of literation in realizing this.

I do know that I can let go of the wheel, so to speak, and the world keeps turning; that letting go is another opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter…even me.