Ordinary Time

If you struggle to find time to pray, start small: this week, strive to find just 5-10 minutes each day to be alone with God, pour your heart out to Him, and listen for His reply. Try the bathroom (seriously!) if you struggle to find a space alone. It doesn’t have to be rigid; you can open simply with, “Hey! God! It’s me. Here I am. Open my heart to your presence. This time is your time.” Then allow yourself to be quiet, listen, and be with God.

Every day this week, make a concerted effort to recognize someone and thank them - and then, thank the one who sent them (God, from whom all good things come). Watch what happens. Gratitude is contagious!

When the spirit is stirred in our hearts, the extraordinary becomes ordinary. Grandparents stepping in to raise their grandchildren; parent who stay at a job they dislike so they can feed their families; a teen giving special care and attention to another teen who is marginalized by others; those who go into harms way in order to rescue others trapped by devastating storms. Despite the destruction, violence, exhaustion, discomfort, or sickness, they step forward. All of these are extraordinary things that are considered merely ordinary by those who did them.
Go out this week and make extraordinary things ordinary in your life. When what you are doing is ordinary, do it in an extraordinary way. Take notice of someone doing an ordinary task with extraordinary care, then approach them and thank them. If you find that hard to do, then you've done something extraordinary.

If we look, we all have a person or a situation in our lives that's prodding us, pricking our conscience a bit, asking us to step out of what’s comfortable, to buck the voice of the crowd, to take a risk. That’s often the Holy Spirit in disguise, nudging us towards a fuller, more abundant life - even if it’s a little painful to get there.
Notice those situations that make you uncomfortable; pay attention to those persons you’re tempted to avoid. In those moments, rather than immediately turning away, getting lost in your distractions, or saying 'Let someone else worry about it,' pray for courage and step in. Pray for guidance and take a risk. Pray to be able to say 'Yes' to your "Lazarus", whatever or whoever that might be.

Let the steward in the parable in today’s Gospel remind us to always be ready to change our minds and reprioritize our lives, and allow others to do the same. As Christians, that means making sure God is first - and when we get that right, everything else will fall in their rightful places.

What is 'mercy'? The Latin root of the word means, literally, “misery of the heart." This speaks of a person who feels for those who are in misery, afflicted, or sorrowful, and acts to help remedy those individuals. In Jesus, we have the ultimate example of this through his suffering, death, and resurrection. Who needs mercy? We all do! We all have sinned and need to admit our faults (repent). Remember: God loves us beyond our comprehension, and he will not condemn us when we humble ourselves before him. He does not desire to destroy you, but lift you up and heal you with his mercy.

In order to live freely, we often have to say ‘no’ to some things in order to say ‘yes’ to others. This week, consciously choose to put Jesus before all else. Look around your home and consider what possessions possess you; then, pick three and give them away. When we put things in their rightful order - with God first and foremost - we become free to enjoy the affections and attractions of this world without becoming enslaved to them.

Christian love isn’t easy. Jesus takes humility and makes it the measure of how mature or real our love really is. Do we truly have a servant’s heart, like Jesus, or is our love self-seeking? Will we lay down our life, or will we protect our ego? It’s easy to love those who are attractive and agreeable. What about those who are insignificant, troublesome, or even offensive?
Take some time to sit with these 12 questions, like an examination of conscience, and see where your love still needs to grow or mature:
1. Have I loved my enemies, turned the other cheek in order to embrace those who hate me? Have I kept silent when I could have cut with my words?
2. Have I prayed for those who oppose or disagree with me?
3. Have I forgiven those who’ve hurt me, and asked God to forgive them, too?
4. Have I taken the high road when I’ve been slighted or ignored? Have I let go of grudges?
5. Have I risked humiliation and rejection in order to love another? Have I resisted the fear of being misunderstood, of not looking good, of not appearing strong or in control?
6. Have I stretched my heart in order to see those who are different or strange to me as fellow children of God?
7. Have I preferred the company of the attractive and the influential to that of the poor, the troublesome, and the broken?
8. Am I truly willing to lay down my life for friends and loved ones? How about for my enemies?
9. Have I been willing to “sweat blood” in order to be faithful to my commitments?
10. Am I willing to let my own heart be broken rather than violate someone else?
11. Have I resisted the urge to judge others or to impute motives?
12. Have I been willing to forgive myself, trusting enough in God’s love and mercy to pick myself up and begin again?