Ordinary Time 
Pause
“To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping.”
– Frederick Buechner
Listen
They made a calf at Horeb, bowing down to a metal idol. They traded their glorious God for an image of a bull that eats grass. They forgot the God who saved them—the one who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works in the land of Ham, awesome deeds at the Reed Sea.
Psalm 106:19-22
Think
This psalm tells us the real underlying reason, besides their impatience, that the recently freed Hebrew people built that golden calf to worship: they forgot. They forgot what God had done for them. They forgot that God had saved them in some pretty miraculous ways. And then as a result, they also forgot who they were—God’s people—and started looking for new gods to worship and to give themselves identity and purpose. Likewise, when we forget the ways God has worked in our lives, we tend to forget who we are.
Remembering is a pretty important part of how everything works. A builder can’t build a structure without remembering what tools, materials, and equipment do which jobs as well as the experiences they’ve had on previous buildings that taught them to be better builders; and our faith is no different. We aren’t going to grow in our relationship with God without remembering the things God has done in our lives already and how they have made us more the people God wants us to be.
Chuck Powell
Question to Ponder:
Why is it sometimes easier to complain about things than it is to thank God for how God has been and is at work in our lives?
Pray
God, help me to see the miracles you’ve worked in my life more than all the other stuff I want to complain about. Help me to remember what you’ve done for me. Amen.
Go
Go, always remembering what our faithful God has done.
