On falling short and stumbling home

A few years ago, I was asked how long I had been a pastor. I forget how long it was precisely, but it must have been somewhere in the window of two to three years. I told my questioner this and the response was darkly humorous: “Oh, so long enough to disappoint some people.” Indeed.

I was having a conversation with a friend recently about the broad strokes of our city’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis. So much good has been done and it’s wonderful to have played a role in it, however small. But with time comes the inevitability of disappointment. Some feel you haven’t done enough or that your efforts are too selective or that you don’t respond well enough to questions or you don’t know enough answers or you won’t help so and so or … whatever. It sucks to feel like you’ve let people down. And it’s easy to get annoyed at people’s annoyance or frustration or lack of gratitude or failure to understand or … whatever.

With time comes disappointment. That’s just the way it goes. For all of us and in all kinds of ways.