It Is Not You Who Does It

When my body is weak or my circumstances are hard,
I think I am failing to build up the believers.
God says this thought is pride.
“Because you are facing the believers,
you think you must build them up.
If you just run toward me, where I stand ahead of you,
they will come on their own, stepping right in your footprints;
why do you face them and try to win their approval?”
I ran toward God, who stood ahead of me.
And I was held in God’s arms,
just as a little child is held in its mother’s arms.
Held in those arms, I could not see the world.
No, I had no need to see it, and I felt warm and safe.
God, holding me, looked at them himself
and began to speak.
God filled the place I had left empty.
And he leads them more rightly and more gently.
In the footprints I left as I ran toward God
they too are treading as they run, with all their strength.
The footprints of my pride are wiped away,
and only the place of God’s grace remains.
Yes, it is not I who do it…