October 7, 2024 Walk by Faith Into Infinity and Beyond
Monday, October 7, 2024
Breathe In the Word: Walk by Faith Into Infinity and Beyond
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7, NRSV
September 28, 2024 marked the culmination of eighteen months of difficult and sometimes painful work that united three Texas United Methodist Conferences into the one Horizon Texas Conference of which Prosper United Methodist Church now belongs. Bishop Ruben Saenz, Jr. punctuated the occasion with a closing sermon in which he quoted his favorite character from Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear. He encouraged the 1000+ clergy and laity in attendance and online that we were now poised to press forward “into infinity and beyond” as one toward five strategic objectives:
- Multiply Jesus followers by making disciples who make disciples.
- Champion children and youth to grow in faith and service.
- Maximize care and healing by extending Christ’s compassion to all who suffer.
- Pursue and embrace diversity.
- Tell our story of Christ’s love for us and all of creation.
I am excited to participate with our church’s Administrative Council, who has already begun to explore these objectives, identifying what we already have in place but also to dream of the limitless possibilities that will take us beyond current boundaries and challenges to make a significant difference in our communities and homes. What more can we imagine into a reality if we walk by faith and not by sight?
I also realize that, while moving into infinity and beyond, that I, at least, can get tripped up by my realistic, perfectionistic, sometimes pessimistic, bent towards operating. That is why today, I offer to myself and all dreamers and doers the Romero Prayer. Thank you, Pam Hughes, Horizon Texas Conference Communications Director, for introducing me to this prayer in her reflection on the Horizon Conference Unification:*
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.
Amen.
Reflect: How do you see yourself and your church already moving to fulfill the five strategic objectives? What more do you think we as a church united can do to move beyond current status and take the next step with these strategies into the next three to five years? Into infinity and the kingdom that lies beyond us? Share your ideas with someone.
Pray: Read and pray again in earnest the Romero Prayer.
By His Grace,
Gloria Ashby
Lay Leader
*Pam Hughes, Director of Communications for Horizon Texas Conference. Notes for Today, September 30, 2024.