Ordinary Time 
Pause
In Lord of the Rings, Frodo the hobbit complains about the times he is living in, and the sage Gandalf agrees and adds, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
We are given this time in history, no matter how you see it. And, we are all equal when it comes to TIME; all of us have 24 hours in our days, and 7 days in our weeks. But, we are not equal when it comes to MONEY and POWER.
Let us explore some ways God’s Word speaks about the inherent inequalities in our lives and how we can handle (or not) what we have.
Listen
Hear this, you who trample on the needy and destroy the poor of the land, saying,
“When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath so that we may offer wheat for sale, make the ephah smaller, enlarge the shekel, and deceive with false balances, in order to buy the needy for silver and the helpless for sandals, and sell garbage as grain?”
The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget what they have done.
Amos 8:4-7
Think
The prophet Amos gives us a warning, a dire one. In his days, people would be distracted by so many things: The New Moon Festival, we can party! The Sabbath will be over soon, and we can go back to normal! The harvest is coming, and we can make a load of money! We can cheat and make even more, whoot whoot! And God’s head is shaking, seeing what is going on. God promises that this will not be forgotten.
While we can get so distracted by all the fun and scheming for riches, we forgot those in need standing right in front of us. We are focused on such UNimportant things, and missing God’s priority — the poor and needy in our very midst. We are even more distracted now, when our attention spans are barely seconds, not hours or minutes.
What would Amos warn us about today? What would he name as our distractions? As you go through your day, ask God to point out Kingdom priorities and worthless distractions in your life.
Rock Higgins
Pray
Lord, all my time is in your hands. All my power, all my wealth, even all of myself comes from you. I play at thinking that I deserve any of this, instead of seeing that all that I have and all that I am are a gift — grace from you. Help me to use these good gifts you showered upon me, every second, every penny, every influential word, to your honor and glory this day. Amen.
Go
“When you get your, ‘Who am I?' question right, all the 'What should I do?' questions tend to take care of themselves.”
Richard Rohr, Falling Upward, 2011
The World will tell you to keep score by its rules. Define yourself by who you are in God, and the score loses its meaning.
