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
By faith even Sarah received the ability to have a child, though she herself was barren and past the age for having children, because she believed that the one who promised was faithful. So descendants were born from one man (and he was as good as dead). They were as many as the number of the stars in the sky and as countless as the grains of sand on the seashore. All these people died in faith without receiving the promises, but they saw the promises from a distance and welcomed them. They confessed that they were strangers and immigrants on earth. People who say this kind of thing make it clear that they are looking for a homeland. If they had been thinking about the country that they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return to it. But at this point in time, they are longing for a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God isn’t ashamed to be called their God—he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:11-16
Think
Each and every one of us has the power to affect change. This is important for us to remember. Though at times we feel powerless, and we wonder if we’re making any difference at all, it is nonetheless true that what we do with our lives matters.
However, the choice is always ours to make. We can follow everyone else’s lead and just go with the flow. Or we can choose the way of faith, and in doing so, partner with God in God’s mission of making all things new.
Of course doing what everyone else is doing is by far the easiest way to live. It’s also easier to look back and wish things were the way they used to be. But God doesn’t want us to spend all of our time “thinking of the land that (we) left behind.” Instead, God is inviting us to exercise our faith, and to work alongside others as we together try to imagine new possibilities, all the while creating a different future for ourselves and for others. Living this way isn’t always popular, but it’s definitely brave.
Chris Robertson
Pray
Lord, I don’t always get it right. Sometimes I make bad decisions, and for that I ask for forgiveness. But I do want to make a difference. Fill me with faith and surround me with people I can partner with. Together, empower us to do your will on earth as it is in heaven. 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.
