Weekly Message from T. J.

I Am Weak but We Are Strong

Some of you know I have a bit of a habit of tracking things and looking at numbers. Partly this is because in ministry there are not many metrics to measure progress or effectiveness that can produce data. There is a lot we do together in ministry measured better by a feeling or a sense than by any number. I don’t presume that numbers and metrics are primary ways to measure matters of ministry. They may not even be secondary ways. In fact, I like to think of them more as only one way of describing ministry, not measuring it.

But as it turns out, if we’re talking about numbers, this reflection is the 100^th Weekly Message from T. J. I’ve written since we’ve been together. I’m not counting the ones from airport gates where I’m saying a quick “aloha” or other shorter ones. I’m counting the ones that have a little more substance, or at least try to have some substance. I confess that after typing that title Weekly Message… into the heading box for our website 100 times, I chuckle a little at the “weekly” word and the meaning of its homophone “weakly,” and wonder how much good these messages do.

Let’s be honest, some messages are better than others. We all know this. Just like we know that some of each one of our own weeks are better than other weeks. And yet we keep going—we are compelled by something to keep on going. Some will call it the Spirit of Life, others might call it God, and still others might call it human metabolism, among so many others, but something for each of us propels us on through week after week of our lives. We take actions, we make decisions, and we look at and live with the results.

And I know some of us reading this might wonder at this word, but I describe this weekly work we each do with a name: faithfulness. It is not enough for me to call the living of a life that challenges and scares us at times merely faith. I see the week-in, week-out attention we give others and ourselves as more than a belief: it is an action. And these actions bring fullness to faith—hence, faithfulness.

Since not every week for me is a winner, I look for examples or chances to take part in communities that practice faithfulness. This week alone our church hosted a workshop by a renowned parenting expert, offered a new type of evening worship service, premiered a primetime television show, will host the Fix-it Fellowship (work party), offer worship with a choir, and march in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.—and I know I’m missing things.

More than any number can ever describe, the countless individual acts of creativity, organization, care, and compassion needed for all of these things to come to pass in a week leave me with a sense, with a feeling of the strength of a community greater than even 100 messages could ever fully describe. And for that I am truly grateful.

And may it ever be so.
Rev. T. J.
minister@unitariansofhi.org