Back to School

Pause

It’s getting closer—and now closer. Moments follow moments until you reach the moment—the here and now.

No matter what comes before and regardless of what follows, God is always there, always in the present. No matter when. No matter where.

God is with you—here and now. Open your heart to know God better.

Listen

He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

Luke 21:1–4

Think

The beginning of a new school year can feel like a countdown to long nights filled with homework, fewer opportunities to socialize with friends, and constant parental nagging about grades. Before long, it seems like the rich life you enjoyed over the summer gives way to the poverty of another school year.

Jesus challenges us to give out of that poverty. To surrender willingly and completely what little we have to him. To be generous with our time or our words with a friend in need even when we do not feel like it. To make a sacrifice for a family member when we feel like we just can’t. It is in those moments that our small gift, like the poor widow’s, will make the biggest difference.

Katie Day

Pray

Giving God, it is hard to imagine you want me to give all that I have. Open my heart to ways that I can give my time, my words, or my patience today. Help me be as generous with love and kindness as you are. Amen.

Go

Even while the seconds go ticking by,
Even as days pass, one and then the other,
Every moment is but a beginning.

Go into the moments ahead
Alert to the never ending promise
That every instant is inhabited
By divine companionship.