Hear the word of the Lord:
He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet,
and I will speak with you.
And when he spoke to me,
a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet;
and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me,
Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel,
to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me;
they and their ancestors have transgressed
against me to this very day.
The descendants are impudent and stubborn.
I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them,
"Thus says the Lord God."
Whether they hear or refuse to hear
(for they are a rebellious house),
they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
As the servants of God, some days we feel adequate,
and some days we don’t.
We might feel as if we have been the only one
to have ever experienced this inadequacy,
but that just isn’t so.
If we read the first few lines of this scripture with care,
we find that even God’s great servant Ezekiel
struggled with his task, with even standing before God
to hear what his task would be.
Those who stretch themselves to meet the calling of God
will find themselves continually bumping up against
the limits of their human capabilities.
That’s been my experience.
I think I know why.
I think that God wants us to always remember that
it is his power that stands us up to speak and to do.
It is his work in us to keep us growing into a soul,
that is body and spirit together, working toward
becoming a being that is more closely conformed
to the unmistakable and holy image of Jesus Christ.
We must remember that it is his power that enables
us to do any good thing that we do, not ours alone.
To take the stress from our worrying, mortal minds,
God also makes it clear what it is that he expects.
He clearly defines the terms of our success.
“Whether they hear or refuse to hear …
they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.”
Whether people do what God asks of people through us,
or not, is not our responsibility; it is theirs.
Our job is to be God’s people and do what he asks of us.
That’s all. That’s it.
Yes, we can and we ought to care about whether
people are obedient or not, but that does not define our
obedience and success before God.
Faithfulness is success.
Not counting people who become Christians,
because God does that.
Not counting buildings erected for God’s use,
because God does that.
Not counting how much money we gave or raised,
because God does that.
What counts is faithful journey in a faithful direction.
Faithfulness is success.
May God help us to be faithful today.
If we struggle with little faith,
may God give us the faith that we need.
Grace and peace,
Ron
Ezekiel 2:1-5 – NRSV
