Ordinary Time

Pause

There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater.

But sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life.

Veronica Roth in Allegiant (2013)

Listen

“Be dressed for service and keep your lamps lit. Be like people waiting for their master to come home from a wedding celebration, who can immediately open the door for him when he arrives and knocks on the door. Happy are those servants whom the master finds waiting up when he arrives. I assure you that, when he arrives, he will dress himself to serve, seat them at the table as honored guests, and wait on them. Happy are those whom he finds alert, even if he comes at midnight or just before dawn. But know this, if the homeowner had known what time the thief was coming, he wouldn’t have allowed his home to be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Human One is coming at a time when you don’t expect him.”

Luke 12:35-40

Think

When it comes to being alert and ready, we could learn a thing or two from dogs. Yes, that’s right, “man’s best friend.” You can walk out of the room for one minute, or leave and come back twelve hours later, either way, you’ll find that most dogs are ready to welcome you with a level of joy and exuberance most of us reserve for Christmas morning.

That kind of expectation, that kind of readiness, is what God wants from us. Jesus says, like a servant waiting for his or her master to return from a wedding banquet, we are to have our head on a swivel, always looking for where God is at work in the world.

It’s easy to get caught in a small story. If you’re looking for drama, you can find it anywhere. But as God’s people, we are to be alert. There is a lot in our world that needs to be redeemed; there are plenty of people that need to be restored. So stay awake, and take advantage of every opportunity to participate in God’s work.

Chris Robertson

Pray

God, it’s easy to get distracted. So help me to be alert and ready. Give me eyes to see all of the opportunities I have to participate with you in your work of redemption and restoration, and give me the will and the strength to join in. Amen.

Go

In Scripture we are told that God is at work in the world.

And that God’s work is also our work.

May we then go into the world and be brave,
ever ready to give of ourselves,
ever trusting in the goodness of God.