From Where I Sit...

“You can only do what you can do.”

One of my favorite television series is the Jesse Stone series. It stars Tom Selleck in what I think is his best role. Chief Stone is a police officer on the east coast and beset by personal problems, town council relationships, and a variety of dark and brooding mysteries to solve. One of the Deputies is an eccentric young man named Luther Simpson, almost immediately given the nickname of Suitcase (which is a whole other story). On a variety of occasions Suitcase tells Jesse, “You can only do what you can do.” He tells Jesse that so often that Jesse starts to say it himself.

I increasingly have to remind myself of that.

There are so many things to fix. The list is long - people are still hungry, children are still sick, teachers and students still struggle with poorly supplied schools, shootings still happen at an alarming rate in churches and schools, people are still judged by the color of their skin instead of the content of their character. A church member recently said to me, “When I was in my teens and twenties I marched and rallied and protested for peace and justice and civil rights. I can’t believe I have to do this [stuff] again.”

Overwhelming, isn’t it? Still, you can only do what you can do.

Or, in other words, no-one expects any one person to fix everything. No-one can do it all.

But everyone had to do something. Perhaps it’s writing cards to legislators (like we did last week). Perhaps it’s planting flowers for the pollinators (like my grandparents did). Perhaps it’s picking up trash and aluminum cans in a parking lot (which our grown children still do after they were taught by their mother).

But even small efforts can wear a body down. It is difficult to live in the jet stream of God’s will. Elijah whined about it in 1 Kings 19. “Nobody listens to me! Nobody cares! I might as well eat worms and die” (My own translation.) And God said to Elijah, “Settle down. Have a snack, take a nap.” So Elijah rested and ate - and then got back to work.

Remember these. First, you can only do what you can do. Second, when you are weary, rest and eat. Third, then get back to work.

With prayers for peace and HOPE, and rain,

Rev. Wally