Ordinary Time 
Pause
Slow down, breathe deep, and connect to your power source.
“In this room you see a big bulb and a big switch. But, if there is no connection with the main power house, then there can be no light. Faith and prayer is the connection with God, and when that is there, there is service.”
Mother Teresa
Take a moment, connecting with God, and know this: Faith carries you through. Faith calls you to action. Faith is enough.
Listen
Israel, wait for the Lord! Because faithful love is with the Lord; because great redemption is with our God! He is the one who will redeem Israel from all its sin.
Psalm 130:7-8
Think
It’s tempting to think of God as some far off being who swoops in from time to time to save the day, and who apparently chooses not to save the day at other times. But really, just this once, I think something I learned in Sunday school may actually be on track. I was taught as a kid God is always with us and Jesus lives in my heart. Obviously, that’s a simplistic way to think about the enormity of God and a complex truth, but it works.
So, if God is always with us, what does it mean to wait for the Lord? If we know God to be closer than what the psalmist implies, perhaps what we’re waiting on is ourselves. We’re waiting for the realization that God offers love and redemption through us to other people. We need faith to stop waiting and to start doing.
Chris Cherry
Pray
Lord, you have given me great power to offer love, acceptance, and welcome to all people. Allow me to discover the courage to stop waiting for you to swoop in and to instead allow you to act through me. Amen.
Go
Faith is both amazing and frustrating. Faith is what invites questions and what keeps us going. What step can you take today?
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr.
