Ordinary Time

Pause

Just take this minute. This minute is your time with God.

God gives life and new life — life on earth and new life in Christ.

You can read this because you are alive, but you chose to take this time because of the new life God promises.

So take this moment to be refreshed.

 

Listen

This is what we know: the person that we used to be was crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled by sin. That way we wouldn’t be slaves to sin anymore, because a person who has died has been freed from sin’s power. But if we died with Christ, we have faith that we will also live with him.

Romans 6:6-8

Think

A corpse controlled by sin sounds a lot like a zombie, but is Paul really talking about the undead? Maybe it’s more about how sin tries to control us and run our lives.

Sin takes all the little worries in life — worries about friends, about school, about your image, about the uncertain future — and tries to blow them out of proportion. Then sin chases after you and tries to drag you down. I guess sin can be like a zombie, chasing you around with outstretched arms, trying to infect you with worldly concerns.

But Christ takes away the power of sin. The worry zombie has no real power anymore. With the faith of Christ, we can focus on starting our new life here and now.

Chris Suehr

Pray

Hi God, it’s me again. There’s a lot on my mind. There’s a lot ahead of me. Help me be free and to feel the freedom you offer. Show me that your power is true power. Amen.

Go

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

from “Now the Green Blade Riseth” by John M. C. Crum, 1928