Ordinary Time 
Pause
Every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it’s gonna take
Oh a million dreams for the world we’re gonna make
from “A Million Dreams” in The Greatest Showman (2017)
Listen
Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth! Be happy! Rejoice out loud! Sing your praises! Sing your praises to the Lord with the lyre— with the lyre and the sound of music. With trumpets and a horn blast, shout triumphantly before the Lord, the king!
Psalm 98:4-6
Think
Woohoo! Your team wins. You beat your video game. You finally get that dance move or piece of music you’ve been working on. Let’s go!!! These are exciting things — of course we’re going to cheer!
These moments of victory may not happen every day. It takes lots of practice to work on sports, music, dance, gaming, and more. Our scripture for today sounds happy with lots of praise and excitement. Sometimes our days feel like that. Many times, they don’t.
The call to praise, to rejoice, to shout triumphantly to God might feel hollow. God doesn’t call us to ignore our pain or the hard times we face. We need to name our hurts and our struggles and cry out to God with them. The scripture reminds us that even though these hard times are very real, they do not have the final say. Even though we can’t always see God, God is still there. We can still have hope, even when we don’t understand.
Laura Edgar
Pray
God, sometimes I can’t help but praise you. Sometimes I don’t feel like praising you.
All the time you are there, loving me, believing in me, walking with me.
Remind me of the hope I have in you.
Amen.
Go
The world is not as it should be, not as it could be, not as it will be.
Trust God’s dreams for you and the world around you.
Dream with God of what could be…
