Monday 22 June 2020

When I began my Ministry, over 30 years ago now, I had those dreams and ambitions, shared by many as they start out in new ventures and journeys, that I was going to make a real impact on the church and the world. Indeed, I was, I thought, the gift that the church had been waiting for all these years. How I was going to change everything for the better! Such was the enthusiasm and delusion of youth.

I was rapidly confronted with the uncomfortable truth that, while everyone needed a Saviour, it certainly was not me. I soon realised that I had enough of a problem saving myself never mind anyone else. Over time the grand vision and vaulting ambition began to fade and recede into something much more modest and attainable. I still, at times, allow myself a wistful dream about what ‘might’ have been, but I tend not to indulge them for too long. It is safer and healthier to stay rooted in the reality of what is and what can realistically be achieved. Perhaps I was only living through what Carl Jung described as the transition from the ‘first-half’ of life to the ‘second-half’ of life. This transition is often accompanied with the acceptance of our limitations, weaknesses and inadequacies. It is often an uncomfortable and painful journey, but necessary all the same. It saves us all from becoming that most pitied of all things in life, an old fool.

As I survey, as many of us do, the problems, challenges and crises that our world is facing at the moment, I am often left feeling overwhelmed and powerless in the face of them. There is the ever-present temptation to just pull down the shutters and hope that it all goes away. What can I do about the plight of the countless poor? How can my actions undo centuries of institutional racism and prejudice? What influence can my voice have against the entrenched elites who seem to hold the reins of government in so many countries and wield them primarily for their own interests and those of their supporters? Can my efforts turn the tide of environmental degradation?

The truth is probably very little. But that must not deter me and anyone else from doing what they can do. As Dorothy Day, the American social activist said, ‘People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time.’ I might not be able to feed the world’s poor, but I can feed the hungry person in front of me. I cannot roll back the tide of racism but I can show respect to whoever I meet today. I cannot heal the world of its seeming selfishness and thoughtless wasteful consumption, but I can live simply and share what I have. To complete Day’s quote, ‘A pebble cast in a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds are like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.’

I will not change the world today. I will not change it in my lifetime. But I can hope and pray that today I give more than I take, commend more than I condemn, praise more than I blame, and do more good than ill. We all have a part to play in ushering in the Kingdom of God on earth. Only you can play your part.