So today I'm reading through the news and I think to myself, "Well, there's nothing that grabs me to write about today." That's funny, because there are things in the news today that affect other people around this planet deeply and personally. Car bombing on the 10th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's death. A small national economy on the verge of collapse. A new Bishop of Rome officially beginning his work. Our president preparing for a diplomatic trip to Israel. Negotiations on allowing American citizenship to immigrants. Even a very intriguing top article in the NY Times about the city attorney's office in San Francisco and how this top team of ace lawyers has gone about changing the expectations for government officials when it comes to defending laws. I could find something great to write about in any or all of these things. But in my mind none of them fit the thing I was hoping to talk about in the Scripture readings. In other words, none of them fit my own agenda.
And I wondered,: how often do I miss good, juicy things in life because they don't fit what I was expecting to see? How often do my own self inflicted blinders keep me from seeing what God wants to show me?
Paul describes the core of his teaching to the Romans this morning. It has to do with knowing that God is not in some far, distant place, but right here in and between and among us. It has to do with welcoming God's reality into our hearts on God's terms instead of trying to set up our own deals in life. And it has to do with deeply trusting your whole being to God and God's will.
So even though I was hoping to make some wonderful comparison between the news and my own personal favorite gospel reading, John 9, a reading that makes me literally weep every time I read it, Paul called me to the mat this morning. Life is ever and always on God's terms in things both small and great.
Today's readings: Jer. 24:1-10; Rom. 9:19-33; John 9:1-17
Elsa is praying the daily readings and praying the news and blogging about it on the weekdays of Lent.
She is reading The Message translation this year.
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