Ordinary Time

Pause

If I just breathe

Let it fill the space between

I'll know everything is alright

Breathe

Every little piece of me

You'll see

Everything is alright

If I just breathe

"Breathe" by Michelle Branch (2003)

 

Today, breathe in God’s abundant Enough.

Listen

This is why I kneel before the Father. Every ethnic group in heaven or on earth is recognized by him. I ask that he will strengthen you in your inner selves from the riches of his glory through the Spirit. I ask that Christ will live in your hearts through faith. As a result of having strong roots in love, I ask that you’ll have the power to grasp love’s width and length, height and depth, together with all believers. I ask that you’ll know the love of Christ that is beyond knowledge so that you will be filled entirely with the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

Think

I dislike when people try to eat off my plate. I always have more than I’m going to eat in the first place, but it’s my plate! I like to get my fill first, then offer it to you when it doesn’t look so appetizing.

Our passage today asks us to become full and enough in other ways: rather than food, on love. It’s quite close to the same – because if you are like me, you don’t share your food unless you really love that person. And it’s fun to think that Jesus shares the bread of heaven, the bread of life, with each of us while the plate still looks appetizing.

There’s a catch though. It doesn’t work if we don’t share the love and fullness of God with others. And not just some others, but all others, recognizing that God’s love is wider, deeper, higher, and more diverse than anything we could create ourselves. And when we share this love with all others, we are participating in the fullness of God’s kingdom on earth.

Timothy Peoples

Pray

God, may I recognize that your love is wider, deeper, higher, and more diverse than anything I could create by myself. And in recognizing this, may I extend this same love in the same exact way. Amen.

Go

Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the ways you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can.

attributed to John Wesley