"We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good."-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, quoted in Out to Canaan by Jan Karon
In Jan Karon's Mitford Series, we follow the life of Father Timothy Kavanagh, the Episcopal rector in the small Carolina town of Mitford. It is encouraging to me to read of a man, a man who has given his life to God, who questions whether he is doing all that God would have him do. Because I question that a lot...particularly of late.
In one exchange with the chaplain of the local seniors' home, Father Tim muses about a ministry he feels he should be leading at "the Creek". The chaplain indicates to the rector that he already has a Creek ministry of his own and proceeds to list three individuals that the Kavanagh had personally saved from a grim life in that bad part of town. To Father Tim, these things had not even occurred to him to be a service to God.
The chaplain goes on to note, "I think we're always looking for the big things...The big calling, the big challenge." And that brings up the quote above from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They also note that Bonhoeffer says we must be "grateful even where there's no great experience and no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty".
One other segment of the book that made me look inward occured when Father Tim was overtaken by a feeling of overwhelming gratefulness for everything that he was blessed with. He drove through town seeing people and things he was thankful for and recalled a quote from Patrick Henry Reardon:
In one exchange with the chaplain of the local seniors' home, Father Tim muses about a ministry he feels he should be leading at "the Creek". The chaplain indicates to the rector that he already has a Creek ministry of his own and proceeds to list three individuals that the Kavanagh had personally saved from a grim life in that bad part of town. To Father Tim, these things had not even occurred to him to be a service to God.
The chaplain goes on to note, "I think we're always looking for the big things...The big calling, the big challenge." And that brings up the quote above from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They also note that Bonhoeffer says we must be "grateful even where there's no great experience and no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty".
One other segment of the book that made me look inward occured when Father Tim was overtaken by a feeling of overwhelming gratefulness for everything that he was blessed with. He drove through town seeing people and things he was thankful for and recalled a quote from Patrick Henry Reardon:
Suppose for a moment that God began taking from us the many things for which we have failed to give thanks. Which of our limbs and faculties would be left? Would I still have my hands and my mind? And what about loved ones? If God were to take from me all those persons and things for which I have not given thanks, who or what would be left of me?
