Doing Only What You Can Do
I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. - John 17:4
Jesus didn’t do everything. But at the end of his life he felt like he’d done the right things.
Just think of all the people he didn’t heal, all the sermons he didn’t preach, and all the people he never comforted. Not to mention all the structural systems of oppression he didn’t fix.
And yet he finished what his Father called him to do. Wow!
This article from Waging Nonviolence is long and very thoughtful. One of the exercises in it is to spend some time journalling about these four questions - which force us to focus on what we can do best:
What are issues you’ll throw down on?
What are issues you’ll do a lot for?
What are issues you’ll do a little for?
What are issues - despite caring about it — you’ll do nothing at all for? That last question can feel like a kind of torture for many activists, even while we’re intellectually aware that we cannot stop it all.
Jesus had to answer some questions like that. Maybe you could work on your answers these days.