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Heavenly Father, I say yes to You today. Wrap Your loving arms around me. I surrender to Your love and Your care in my life. Lift my burdens, melt my worries, wash my stress away. Replace each care today with Your all-encompassing love. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen

Friday of the 25th week in Ordinary Time

Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

Psalm 144:1b+2abc, 3-4

L uke 9:18-22 Now it happened that as he was praying alone the disciples were with him; and he asked them, "Who do the people say that I am?" (19) And they answered, "John the Baptist; but others say, Eli'jah; and others, that one of the old prophets has risen." (20) And he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered, "The Christ of God." (21) But he charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, (22) saying, "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third  day be raised."

Meditation by the Rev. Rich Gabuzda (Creighton University)

All in God’s Time

W hat is it that is so attractive about the well-known verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes which we hear today?  Is it the rhythm that sways back and forth (A time . . ., a time)?  Is it the stark contrasts that mark each verse (born/die, weep/laugh, love/hate)?  Perhaps it is a combination of all the above. 

As much as these characteristics may unite to attract our attention, the “commentary” provided in the text defines most of all the attraction of these haunting verses:  “There is an appointed time for everything . . . [God] has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts.”  The breadth of human experience chronicled by Ecclesiastes exhausts us until we relax into the truth that no part of human experience escapes God’s view, God’s presence. 

Without that truth, the times of daily life feed a frenzy that continually looks to “the next thing” because the present is too difficult to bear, or seems empty.  On we run to the next thing, in the hope of finding relief, something better, more satisfying, happier.  But if everything mysteriously bears the stamp of God’s design and purpose, then no time is outside of his loving Providence , no event outside his loving Presence.  Relaxing into that truth, then we know that the “rush” inside our hearts to “move on,” comes not from the worthlessness of passing moments.  Rather, “God has put the timeless into their hearts.”  A line from the poet William Blake comes to mind:  “The wind is old and still at play, but I must hurry upon my way, for I am running to Paradise.”

It’s all God’s – both time and eternity.  What a relief!

Supplementary Reading

Gentle Savior

Come to Me (Jesus says), all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. -Matthew 12:28

In our lives we all labor in so many different ways – most of us physically, and certainly all of us mentally. As a teenager, I labored my summers away on construction sites. I remember the sweat on my brow and an ache in my shoulders under the heat of the sun. With each passing minute, I longed for the coolness of shade and a tall, ice-cold tea...to lean against a tree and close my eyes while the summer breeze calmed my muscles. As an adult when the stresses come, and they always come, I often long for that same shade tree...to lean against its trunk with a tall, cold ice tea that could somehow wash away the stress of my day.

We all have a perfect, stress-free mental picture in our mind. What is yours? Are you sitting on a beach? Lounging in a boat? Relaxing in the cool breeze of the mountains? Camping beside a quiet stream? Getting room service in a luxury hotel as you scan the perfect view outside your window? Come on, relax and dream for just a minute and paint that perfect stress-free picture in your mind.

Now, picture Jesus Christ, His arms outstretched waiting to embrace you. His words are calm, soothing, inviting beyond imagination. "Come to Me," He says, "all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Rest far beyond just a mental picture in your mind, and rest far beyond actually being in that mental picture. The stresses and worries of your life are simply no match for the Master's hand.

Heavenly Father, gentle Savior, I say yes to You today. Wrap Your loving arms around me. I surrender to Your love and Your care in my life. Lift my burdens, melt my worries, wash my stress away. Replace each care today with Your all-encompassing love. In Jesus' Name. Amen. – Joel & Victoria Osteen

GOD BLESS US ALL!

O Theos Na Mas Evlogisi!
PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU.

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