Ordinary Time 
Pause
Pssst… hey, you. Did you know that there’s a wild and wonderful God traveling alongside you, all around you, within you right now?
The Bible tells us that our God is like a shepherd who never leaves the flock for one moment. God is always with us. We are never alone, never abandoned. And no matter what we do – no matter what choices we make or what happens to us – this God is always reaching out to us in love.
So pause. Rest for a moment. Abide in the Holy. And let God’s grace transform your living and loving.
Listen
This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us. The person who keeps his commandments remains in God and God remains in him; and this is how we know that he remains in us, because of the Spirit that he has given to us.
1 John 3:23-24
Think
As we continue to grow in Christ and mature as Christians, one of the things many of us discover is that it gets easier to just BE with God. We come to understand that we don’t have to get everything done at once in this relationship, because it’s never going anywhere. We can simply abide in the Holy and recognize that the Holy rests in us… and just enjoy that reality.
Sometimes I think that one of Jesus’s greatest gifts to us was just coming and showing us how to abide in God. We don’t have to have all the answers. We don’t have to get everything right. We don’t have to obsess over how we’re acting all the time. It’s not like hanging out with someone you just met. It’s more like spending time with someone you’ve known and loved forever.
When we let go of the need to be “the perfect Christian” and get it “just right,” we are freed to simply BE with God.
Caela Simmons Wood
Pray
God-who-is-like-an-old-friend, thank you for sticking with me throughout my life. You have known me since before I was born, and you will be with me long after I die. Free me from my anxieties and help me remember to simply enjoy the gift of abiding in your Spirit. Amen.
Go
Go into the day ahead renewed, restored, and reinvigorated to live out the Good News of God’s love. God, the Good Shepherd, who never leaves our side, travels with you into the day ahead – whatever it holds. May the goodness of the Holy One shine brightly from your heart on each person you encounter.
