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

First of all, then, I ask that requests, prayers, petitions, and thanksgiving be made for all people. Pray for kings and everyone who is in authority so that we can live a quiet and peaceful life in complete godliness and dignity.

1 Timothy 2:1-2

Think

When we get our hearts and minds in tune with God, everything changes. We are no longer in a position of being powerless or poor, that is, in the ways that count with God. By the world’s score, we will probably be far behind.

In this week’s scripture readings we have seen how not to use our power in God’s kingdom, but in today’s reading we look at what we SHOULD do. “Pray for everyone.” That is a proper use of our power. When we are blessed we can pray for God’s blessings on everyone, even those that persecute and hate us and call us enemies. We can love them and bless them. (That is real power.) And those who rule over us, God bless them, too!

When all is right with them, then we can be about our Lord’s work, loving, serving, worshiping with no distractions. You see, when we find our power in God, our wealth in God, OURSELVES in God, then we have everything. We have all the power, all the wealth, all the grace we need.

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.