Ordinary Time

Pause

It’s ok to grieve, it’s ok to learn to fall. / It’s ok to believe, to admit that you’re human after all.

It’s ok to heal, all of those scars buried deep inside. / It’s ok to feel, to say all the things you’ve been trying to hide.

We are always in motion, like the winds, the tides, the ocean. / Everyday I’m born again, I wake up I feel that second wind.

We’re gonna be alright.

from “We’re Gonna Be Alright,” Switchfoot (2019)

Listen

When they came to Emmaus, he acted as if he was going on ahead. But they urged him, saying, “Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren’t our hearts on fire when he spoke to us along the road and when he explained the scriptures for us?”

Luke 24:28-32

Think

They say hindsight is 20/20… that once we have our “lightbulb moment,” things that happened before begin to make sense… that we can find meaning, even from a confusing or painful episode, once we arrive at the other side.

There are bad things that happen — to us, to our family, to our community. Covid-19 continues to disrupt so many lives near and far, and God grieves with everyone who has experienced losses big and small. Make no mistake, though: God did not will this suffering on anyone.

Jesus is with us in this crisis — in our quarantined homes, in the overrun hospitals, at the press briefings. We catch glimpses of him in the grocery stores, at our online classes, out for a run. We can be sure that Jesus is walking alongside us, even if we don’t realize it at the time.

What if that big reveal of Jesus’ presence helps us see things differently once this is all over? What if our eyes were opened to seeing him among us all the time?

Peter Hanson

Pray

Stay with me, Jesus. Walk with me in good times and in bad. Let your words of comfort and peace, of justice and joy, burn within my heart. Amen.

Go

God calls you to venture where you cannot see the end, by paths never yet taken, through perils unknown;

Go with good courage, not knowing where you go, but only that God’s hand is leading you and God’s love is supporting you.