Ordinary Time

Pause

Our eyes can fool us. We are each captive to our own way of seeing things, struggling to see the world from any perspective but our own.

Sometimes we look away, afraid of what we might see or afraid of what it might mean to see things differently than we usually do.

Wisdom shines a light on what we look at, and God is the source of that illumination. Be prepared now to see things more clearly.

Listen

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Romans 7:15–20

Think

Our four-year-old and her friends are learning to make good choices. For example, it is a good choice to tell a parent or teacher if someone hurts you. It is not a good choice to haul off and knock the other kid down. Yet, some days they make the choice they know they aren’t supposed to make, and they can’t explain why.

As we get older, this still happens. We know what we are supposed to do and yet that’s not what we do. We end up making the wrong choice. In those moments, we feel like four-year-olds, unable to explain the whys of our actions.

It is a lifelong process, understanding why we do what we do and don’t do. It’s a hard concept to think about. Don’t be discouraged; even Paul struggled.

Ruth Perkins Lee

Pray

God, instead of being discouraged, help me try again. Show me the right choices and guide me to make them. Amen.

Go

May you have new eyes to see this very day a world that is not exactly all that you thought.

May God give you new wisdom to understand the things that God would have you to know.

And may all this result in a new humility that makes you a more effective witness to God’s mysterious works.