"If we think that the ultimate goal of the church is to fix things then when we are faced with an un-fixable situation we are disappointed in God in a way that's pretty unfair..." Sarah Condon.

On the Mockingcast episode I listened to today, the hosts talked about "crisis of capacity"" -- the point you reach when you can't do anything more. It's not about what you should do, what needs to be done, but the fact that you cannot. Near the end of the episode, Sarah Condon says this:

If we think that the ultimate goal of the church is to fix things then when we are faced with an un-fixable situation we are disappointed in God in a way that's pretty unfair; we're disappointed in our own abilities in a way that will only separate us from God's grace and it's really dangerous. The church is actually, generally speaking, terrible at fixing things because there's social services institutions with people with educations that are able to do that. We can only do so much. 

But if you think that the ultimate purpose of the church is to preach Christ crucified for sinners and salvation, then even when there's nothing else you can do to help or to fix, that is always a place you can turn to. You can always stand at the foot of the cross. When we're able to do that, we're able to see our own mistakes and our own failures as God just getting us ready for a miracle. In the moment when we stop trying to fix it, when we think, "I'm done," that's the moment when you're like, "Look out!" Guess what, you're not good at this. Something is going to happen that goes way beyond your abilities, way beyond your capacity, and you're just going to sit there and watch it happen.

RJ talked about a sermon his brother preached on the story of Joseph and all the heinous things that happened to him -- 50 chapters of Genesis. "It's a beautiful story of redemption. The truth is we're all just in chapter 37 right now."