Ordinary Time

Pause

It is time. It is time to be. Be still. Be silent if you can. Just be for a few moments.

The Good News will come to you, and God willing, come through you. Read, experience, and then share. But first, be.

Listen

One of those women was Lydia, a Gentile God-worshipper from the city of Thyatira, a dealer in purple cloth. As she listened, the Lord enabled her to embrace Paul’s message. Once she and her household were baptized, she urged, “Now that you have decided that I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she persuaded us.

Acts 16:14-15

Think

I like the show “Undercover Boss,” where higher-ups in a company take on a disguise and become an employee of their own corporation. There they can really get to see the reality of the company and not just judge its success or failure by numbers on charts and graphs.

Today in our reading, the tent-making Apostle Paul and others meet Lydia. The fact that she deals in “purple cloth” is a signal to the reader of this text that she deals with royal folks. Her store today might be found in Beverly Hills, where the wealthy shop. It was an unlikely encounter.

This text reminds us that we have no status in the eyes of God. We are the beloved children of our Creator. I wonder what we might see as we venture into our lives today in witness to our God, if we were to remove our status and the status of others, and look and treat one another as just what we are – beloved children of God; nothing more and nothing less.

Peter Ackerman

Pray

God, I ask your help to guide me to spread the Good News by seeing others around me not as who society makes them, but as who they are, as I am, your beloved offspring. Amen.

Go

You are never alone.

Remember this, and go out and find others; others who need the reminder of that Good News, and others who can bring God’s message to you.

Be who you are, and spread the Good News today.