Ordinary Time 
Pause
“A saint is not someone who is good but who experiences the goodness of God.” (Thomas Merton, Trappist monk)
When we catch glimpses of God’s goodness in our lives, we call that grace.
Open your heart, mind, and soul to the ways that you need God’s grace to sustain you on your journey.
Listen
I cry out to you from the depths, Lord— my Lord, listen to my voice! Let your ears pay close attention to my request for mercy! If you kept track of sins, Lord— my Lord, who would stand a chance? But forgiveness is with you— that’s why you are honored.
Psalm 130:1-4
Think
While I find the ocean beautiful, it also terrifies me. That is also how the ancient Israelites saw the sea. They felt that the sources of danger and chaos in the world were born from the waters. The writer of Psalm 130 cries out to God from the depths. We live in a chaotic world. It feels like many times that we can be overwhelmed by the injustice in the world.
Yet, even from the deepest waters, the psalmist declares that God’s forgiveness and grace are found. Notice that the psalmist does not say that God brought me out of the waters, but that he heard God’s voice while in the midst of the depths.
God’s grace will find us where we are, not where we wish we were. Even when the waters of chaos surround you, you are not alone.
Tyler Tankersley
Pray
God of grace, help me to know that your presence is with me in the midst of the joys of life and in the seasons of chaos. Amen.
Go
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
from “Grace Greater Than Our Sin” by Julia H. Johnston (1910)
