Daily Gospel Reflection for June 30, 2014

Today's Gospel: Matthew 8:18-22

Everyone has been provided for, even the foxes and the birds, but the one most important person with the biggest mission to perform has no provisions. Yet He persists, carries on, and keeps the fires lit in his ministry.

Jesus knew His mission, and it wasn’t an easy one, but it was going to have to be done without waiver. Anyone who would follow him had to know this and had to have the same conviction deep in their soul. There was no turning back, no halfway commitment, all or nothing. Those who said, "I want to follow you, but first I need to tend to my other commitments" flunked the test! There was no other commitment more important that the ministry.

As a mom, there are times when I feel too busy to mother my children with the many other things I do. There have been times when my husband, who played softball for years on the church league, would have a game which left me with getting dinner on the table, the kids where they needed to be, and the other things that needed to be accomplished on the home front.

Drained and angry, I would say to myself, “If you are going to be the father of this household,
forget the play stuff and be the father!” It didn’t happen that often, but this gospel today makes me think of the times when we fail to put our all into our parental role. When that happens, things seem to fall apart, too. My father would tell me not to get too involved in too many activities at school or church, “Do one thing and do that one thing well,” he’d say. Not that we shouldn’t have pastimes to enjoy, or hobbies that give a reprieve to the daily responsibilities, but we do have to remember our priorities.

It’s not always fun to have such a big responsibility as raising the next generation of our world, but there are times when it is! Can you imagine the times in Jesus’ ministry when he gave the blind man sight, or healed the lame man, or even raised Lazarus from the dead that He was overwhelmed with joy and perhaps smiled?

Ponder:

At the beginning of today’s Gospel, Jesus needed to stand back and get some space between him and the crowd. Take time to stand back, breathe deeply, and say a prayer to our Lord for strength and wisdom to handle the daily responsibilities of your day. Ten or 15 minutes isn’t too much to take to refresh your soul.

Pray:

Dear Lord, My responsibilities don’t measure up to what your ministry accomplished, but it does have to measure up. Help me to lean on you, to remember to make time to take a few steps back and be with you daily. I love you and trust in you! Amen.

Copyright 2014 Ebeth Weidner