Ordinary Time

Pause

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. God will be constantly crossing our paths and canceling our plans...”

from "Life Together" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1939)

Today we pause to discern how God might be interrupting our lives to break us out of our comfort zone, inviting us into a deeper walk of faith.

Listen

Are any of you wise and understanding? Show that your actions are good with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom. However, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above. Instead, it is from the earth, natural and demonic. Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and everything that is evil.

James 3:13-16

Think

What is wisdom? How do we learn to be wise in our words and actions? We often associate becoming wise or growing in wisdom with the successes of our lives. We encounter an obstacle, we endeavor to overcome the obstacle, and when we achieve success we have grown from the experience and can then rely upon that wisdom the next time we experience another obstacle in our path. But what happens when we fail? What happens when our carefully thought-out plans are interrupted by life?

I have found that I have grown in wisdom through both my successes and through my failures. As the apostle James reminds us, wisdom and understanding come from a humble life rooted in prayer and lived in community. For it is our community that supports us and loves us as we walk with God. Even through our failures God draws us into a closer and deeper relationship where we sense and perceive more clearly God’s will for each of us as God’s beloved children.

Rob Schoeck

Pray

God of wisdom, interrupt my plans today and break into my life in unsuspecting ways. Surround me with your love and mercy, so that I might radiate and share that love with others in my community. Amen.

Go

Be prepared. Whatever your plans are for today, or however you imagined your day going, be prepared.

God may be reaching out to you in the most surprising and unexpected way. God wants to be in relationship with you and is trying to break into your life. It is up to you to be open to that invitation, no matter what guise it might take.

Be prepared, because God loves you and will show you this through the people and the world around you.