Ordinary Time

Pause

It happens to us every day. Every hour. We have to respond. We have to respond to the car that cuts us off on the road. Respond to the text that just arrived. Respond to the person who is calling our name.

Some of our responses are automatic, and we don’t even think about it. Some are conditioned by our experiences. For some, we have time to breathe and think and pray.

And in the midst, God continues to call… How are we prepared to respond?

Listen

The Lord’s word came to Jonah a second time: “Get up and go to Nineveh, that great city, and declare against it the proclamation that I am commanding you.” And Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, according to the Lord’s word. (Now Nineveh was indeed an enormous city, a three days’ walk across.)

Jonah started into the city, walking one day, and he cried out, “Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!” And the people of Nineveh believed God. They proclaimed a fast and put on mourning clothes, from the greatest of them to the least significant.

God saw what they were doing—that they had ceased their evil behavior. So God stopped planning to destroy them, and he didn’t do it.

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Think

What happens when you say yes in response to God? You never know unless you try it!

Jonah is one of the best “no” stories in the Bible. God called, and Jonah did everything he could do to say no. He said it. He hid. He ran away. He moped. No. No. No. Yet finally, he was worn down to responding with a yes (albeit still a reluctant one)… and what happened? The people of Ninevah responded with a YES! They believed God.

If we don’t respond with a yes to God, we may never know exactly what God will do… or at least we will not be the ones to witness it.

Edward Goode

Pray

God, I say “yes” to you today. Help me to see the wonderful ways you respond to my yes. Amen.

Go

Stop.

Take a few breaths. Take a few more.

Listen.

Wait.

Pray.

Respond.