Ordinary Time

Pause

God I give you what I can today
These scattered ashes that are hid away
I lay it all at your feet

Lauren Daigle in “Once and for All” (2015)

Listen

“Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are?”

Matthew 6:25-26

Think

Growing up I spent almost every Thanksgiving in Bardwell, Kentucky at my Grandmother Jane’s house. I hung out in the kitchen, talking with my grandmother and watching her make her most famous recipes, trying to remember exactly how much sage she put in her dressing and how long she cooked her rice. Now looking back, I savor those moments I had with her, realizing that in those conversations I learned more about life than I ever did about cooking.

In our texts this week, we find not just the story of the people of Israel, but we discover a recipe for cultivating a life of gratitude…

Ingredient #1: Simplify

In Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he confronts one of the greatest afflictions of the 21st century: anxiety. “Look at the birds of the air…” It may sound trite to those suffering with severe anxiety – it is oddly simple, isn’t it? But Jesus isn’t belittling our pain or invalidating our feelings; instead, he reminds us that life was not meant to be so complicated. We were not created to carry around the baggage of our past, the worry of our future, and the weight of the current world affairs on our backs. Watch how the birds fly unhindered by the weight of the world, allowing God to be God. We too can simplify our lives, laying down our burdens, our worries, the heaviness we carry.

Kelli Kirksey

Pray

Faithful God, help me to lay down all that’s keeping me worried.

Relieve any anxiety about the future by reminding me that you love me and provide all that is good.

Amen.

Go

From the corners of my deepest shame
The empty places where I’ve worn your name
Show me the love I say I believe

Oh, help me to lay it down
Oh, Lord I lay it down

Lauren Daigle in “Once and for All” (2015)