There are still Prophets among us

With the passing of William Sloan Coffin, one may be tempted to think that we are losing too many of our prophets. I have always thought that when one prophet passes, God raises up another and another and another. In some ways, I even look at my ministry as one where God will raise up my successor when it is time for me to move on, or move beyond this world.

In some ways, being a servant of God is a little like a mantra I learned while I was in the military: "Boys, you are all expendible." At first, I took such a declaration as if all I did and said would be futile, especially in the grander scope of things. As I have grown older though, I actually like the idea that I am expendible. And not only me, but others. All those who work for God are continuing the work that God has begun for a millenia. And, God will continue God's work until 'that final day.' Maybe some of those old Calvinistic doctrines are still brewing inside of me but I remain convinced that what God has begun in us, God will complete--and to me I find hope in that. And, as long as I remain doing what I think God would have me to do, I don't feel any pressure that "it's all up to me to do or accomplish great things" because God is at work doing and accomplishing--and I am just being one part of the much larger mechanism that God is working and doing.

Anyways, as I was surfing the 'net this afternoon, I came across this wonderful quote from Cornel West.

"To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely - to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away. This is the kind of vision and courage required to enable the renewal of prophetic, democratic Christian identity in the age of the American empire." [Cornel West, Democracy Matters, 172]

See--God is still using men and women to proclaim the Gospel and tell the truth while they're doing it.