I Wonder ...

“I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.” Anne Frank


Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl who was discovered by the Nazis as she was being hidden. She died in a concentration camp at the age of 16. Her diary had been discovered by her father shortly after Germany fell in WWII, and he had it published in 1947. You probably know the work as The Diary of Anne Frank.

I came across this quote and shared with the congregation last night my thoughts concerning Anne’s ideals and the United Methodist ideal expressed in “Imagine Ministry”. Anne looked forward to the day, through her optimism in spite of her living in constant fear of being discovered, when her ideals would be fully expressed, high ideals that believed at the core that humans were basically decent. She seemed to look forward to the day when she could enhance that notion of goodness and prove there are decent humans in the world. Sadly, she never got to see her ideals come to fruition, yet The Diary is widely read around the world today. Her ideals are expressed in every new reader who takes to heart her perspective, her courage, her optimism that there will always be better moments.

“Imagine Ministry” will challenge United Methodist Christians to take the ideals we have upheld for so long – and they are good! - and recognize the time has come to “carry them out” but make no mistake; this cannot strictly be about the United Methodist Church – it is entirely about the Body of Christ! In our lifetimes we may not get to see the fruits of our efforts, but I wonder if someone will “discover” our diaries after we are departed from this earth and find them worth reading. I wonder if they will see the strength of our convictions and the courage of our faith in all we had written. I wonder if future generations will be able to see what we truly believed. I wonder if we will be worth talking about 60 years from now.