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Home Sections The Daily B.R.E.A.D. March 24, 2009 - Tuesday Meditation (Make Them Look Good!)
March 24, 2009 - Tuesday Meditation (Make Them Look Good!) PDF Print E-mail
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Sections - The Daily B.R.E.A.D.
Monday, 23 March 2009 03:17
When you make contact with people, instead of focusing on yourself, search for ways to make them look good.
 
 
Ez 47:1-9, 12
Ps 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9

Jn 5:1-16  After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. (2) Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Hebrew called Beth-za'tha, which has five porticoes. (3) In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame, paralyzed. (5) One man was there, who had been ill for thirty-eight years. (6) When Jesus saw him and knew that he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" (7) The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is troubled, and while I am going another steps down  before me." (8) Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your pallet, and walk." (9) And at once the man was healed, and he took up his pallet and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. (10) So the Jews said to the man who was cured, "It is the Sabbath, it is not lawful for you to carry your pallet." (11) But he answered them, "The man who healed me said to me, `Take up your pallet, and walk.'" (12) They asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, `Take up your pallet, and walk'?" (13) Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. (14) Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse befall you." (15) The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. (16) And this was why the Jews persecuted Jesus, because he did this on the Sabbath.
 
 
* Meditation by Allison Showalter
 
 
My alarm goes off at 8:15. I wake up, prepare for the day, and go to class at 9:30. I spend the day in classes or working, returning home around 5 pm. I make and eat something quick and easy for dinner, then proceed to do various activities in the evening usually revolving around homework. Weekends provide a welcome relief from the daily routine, involving lots of sleeping, making good food, spending time with friends, and fun. And of course, I work on the inevitable homework that must get done before Monday morning. My life is full of standard routine and little variation in the grand scheme of things. Rarely do I pause during my daily routine and question why I choose to make this my life. Why is it that I am at college? What do I hope to accomplish with my life? Is my daily routine taking me closer to that goal or farther away? Am I actively seeking out new opportunity, or am I waiting for somebody else to approach me with a plan of action?
 
In the gospel reading for today, the man who has been ill for 38 years follows the same routine of going to the pools that provide relief and healing. When Jesus asks this man if he wants to be well, his answer revolves around the pools. He is not looking for anything different from what he already knows and is familiar with -- his routine. The healing power of Jesus frees this man from his illness even when he is still focused on the pools. Jesus offers the man an opportunity to be healed that is different than his goal of relief in the pools. This leads me to the thought of how is Jesus offering me an opportunity and how long will it take me to recognize that offer? It might take 38 years of illness before I am able to figure out what it is that I can do with my life to bring the light of God to my world and shed that light for others. How long until I allow God’s river of healing to touch me and bring forth the abundance in my life that it creates on the riverbank described in the first reading from Ezekiel?
 
The season of Lent is an opportunity to grow closer to God and contemplate the great love God shows us through Jesus Christ. My prayer this Lent is that I use this season to break myself of the habit of routine and use this extraordinary season to meditate on the influence of God in my life. I pray that I can recognize the opportunity Jesus extends to me every day and use the gifts given to me to bring life and abundance to my daily routine.
 

 
Supplementary Reading 
The 30-second Rule 
 

We sent Timothy . . . to strengthen and encourage you in your faith – 1 Thessalonians 3:2

 

W hen most people meet others, they search for ways to make themselves look good. The key to the 30-Second Rule is reversing this practice. When you make contact with people, instead of focusing on yourself, search for ways to make them look good.
 
Every day before I meet with people, I pause to think about something encouraging I can tell them. What I say can be one of many things: I might thank them for something they've done for me or for a friend. I might tell others about one of their accomplishments. I might praise them for a personal quality they exhibit. Or I might simply compliment their appearance. The practice isn't complicated, but it does take some time, effort, and discipline. The reward for practicing it is huge, because it really makes a positive impact on people.
 
* * *

Take 30 seconds with each person you meet today to add value to them.

* * * 
 
 
Note: This excerpt was taken from the "The Maxwell Daily Reader"
 
GOD BLESS US ALL!
PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU.
 
 
 

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Last Updated on Tuesday, 24 March 2009 09:42
 

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Quote of the Day

If a man will begin with certainties,he shall end with doubts;but if he will be content to begin with doubts,he shall end in certainties.-- Sir Francis Bacon, 1561-1626