This Moved Me

(written on Monday, September 27, 2010)

I'm sitting outside on the porch, overlooking the inlet, listening to the crickets chirp, feeling a cool breeze blow through the screen.

I'm away from the office this week for our annual WMU Field Staff planning retreat. This first day was filled with meetings. The next days will be the same. Hopefully the nights will be filled with rest. Because I am tired.

As I sat down to write this note tonight, I thought I knew what I was going to post. But in looking up information for the Acteens page, I stumbled upon a writing that moved me to tears.

I must admit that sometimes I get discouraged in my work--sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Yet tonight I found these words from Fannie Exile Heck that I believe will help me continue to charter the course. Maybe they will do the same for you:

Changes will come;
new faces take the place of old;
new and broader plans succeed those of today;
but our beloved Union is safe in our Master’s care.
See to it, only, that you listen to His voice and follow where Christ leads.
Be gentle in your personal lives, faithful and shining.
Be joyful, knowing His purposes are good, not evil, to His Children.
Be prayerful in your planning.
Be patient and persistent in your fulfillment.
Endeavor to see the needs of the world from God’s standpoint.
Plan not for the year, but for the years.
Think long thoughts.
Strive for the conversion of those around you as faithfully as for the heathen.
Train the children for world-wide service.
Lead the young women gently into places of joyous responsibility.
Bring all your powers into the best service of the best King.
Thus shall your work abide and be abundantly blessed of God to your own joy and the joy of the world.
In the belief that you will continue to adorn the doctrine of service, I bid you, dear friends, Farewell.

Fannie E. S. Heck, 1915