I instantly—but, of course, silently—judged him “judgmental.”
For a decade or so, I’ve retained that assessment of him. But today I have my doubts.
Yesterday, I talked with a North American volunteer about her planned project for Nicaraguans who make their living digging through dumps. The pride in her smile was palpable. "A do-gooder," I thought.
But, gracias de Dios (thanks to God), He held up a mirror.
I remembered my smile that morning as I said, “I’m writing a book, about the transformation stories growing out of the Nehemiah Center’s work in Nicaragua.” My unspoken subtext: “I’m doing something important for the Kingdom!”
I saw in her face a reflection of my own.
Sitting here in the Hernandez bedroom, breeze wafting the embroidered curtains on this late Saturday afternoon, I review the words of the Nehemiah Center field guide for teams: “A final word: PRIDE – it is a favorite tool of the devil. A common problem among all persons who have cross-cultural experience. . .”
The guide goes on to quote Oscar Romero, a martyred El Salvador priest and advocate for justice:
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 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 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 effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
. . . We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs.
We are not messiahs. Not one of us.
Gracias a dios for the One who is.
I thought of Rollo May in Courage to Create (paraphrase) that to create we must know that what we believe is only partly true, that what we can do could likely be done another way, and maybe better, but STILL have the courage to go ahead and commit anyway, to create anyway.
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