Realm of Magic: Dueling Box by TheOnlyException
Cast Forward Hit > x (female)
Cast Forward Hit > y (male)
Cast Up Hit > x (female)
Cast Up Hit > y (male)
Cast Forward Hit Swapped > x (female)
Cast Forward Hit Swapped > y (male)
Cast Up Hit Swapped > x (female)
Cast Up Hit Swapped > y (male)
Multi Cast Hit > x (female)
Multi Cast Hit > y (male)
Multi Cast Hit Swapped > x (female)
Multi Cast Hit Swapped > y (male)
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Day three
(because, well, you know)
It’s day three. The day I stumble.
Every year, I start out making a bunch of New Year’s resolutions. Every year, I do good for about two days.
And then? Day three. That’s when I stumble.
That is, I forget to do something that I resolved to do. Or I mess up something that I resolved to do. Maybe some of both.
I do this every year. Day three. Like clockwork.
Why?
Because I get so enthused about all of my plans. All of my good ideas. That I just start doing stuff. That I get so enthused that I (and this is pathetic in its predictability) forget to lay the proper foundation. With God.
Both by making sure that all of my big ideas are in accord with God’s will. And by starting the day with God (instead of starting the day trying to do all the things).
It gives me hope to know that I’m not alone in this. That this is nothing new. As C.S. Lewis puts it,
“The real problem in the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals.
And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.
And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.”
Today’s Readings
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Renewed Strength
Even youths are wearied and fatigued, And young men utterly stumble,
But those expecting Jehovah pass [to] power, They raise up the pinion as eagles, They run and are not fatigued, They go on and do not faint!
— Isaiah 40:30-31 | Young's Literal Translation of the Holy Bible (YLT)
Young’s Literal Translation of the Holy Bible is in the public domain.
Cross References: Isaiah 9:17; Jeremiah 6:11; Jeremiah 9:21; Jeremiah 48:15; Luke 18:1; 2 Corinthians 4:1; 2 Corinthians 4:8; 2 Corinthians 4:16; Galatians 6:9; Hebrews 12:3; Revelation 12:14
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Try again
It’s easy to check out when the reading is a list of names.
Like today’s Gospel, which lists the names of the Twelve Apostles. Some of them are familiar. Others? Not so much.
Whenever there’s a list in the Gospels, it’s there for a reason. If not several reasons.
To me, the most compelling reason for this list? The list of the people that Jesus hand-picked as His Apostles? Is who they are. And who they aren’t.
To throw a few labels on them, we’ve got a bunch of fishermen. One of them is the king of overpromising and underperforming. Two more of them are completely full of themselves.
There are traitors to their own people – collecting taxes to fund a foreign power’s occupation of their land. Add in a revolutionary, a skeptic, and a thief.
If you were assembling a list of the best and the brightest. People with power and influence. People you would trust with something important. None of them would be on that list.
That’s who they were when Jesus called them.
We know from the rest of the New Testament how things will work out. About God’s call for their lives, and who they will become.
But we also know from the Gospels everything that they will mess up. All of the mistakes. All the times they’ll say exactly the wrong thing. And even the betrayals.
Everything that they will get wrong on the road to becoming who God called them to be.
Knowing all of this about them (because He’s God), Jesus calls them. Because Jesus knows something about them that they don’t – not yet.
That if they keep their focus on Him, when they stumble and fall (and they will), He will help them get back up. He will help them pick up the pieces.
Jesus will give them the grace and the strength to try again. To take another step closer to Him.
That if they keep their focus on Him, Jesus won’t give up on them. No matter how many times they stumble and fall.
There are two things for us to know. First, this isn’t a special deal, something that happened once, just for the Apostles. And second, God’s call isn’t just for the Apostles. Or even clergy.
God calls each one of us. To draw close, into a deeper relationship with Him. To do the good that He has called us to do. To become who He made us to be.
From our perspective, that can seem kind of overwhelming. Because you and I know our own shortcomings and failures, all too well. We know that, if we’re trying to follow God’s call for our lives, at a certain point, we’re going to mess it up. We’re going to get it wrong.
But you who else knows this about us? God.
God knows all of this about us. And knowing all of that, God still calls us.
With the same love that flowed through His call of the Apostles.
God is telling us that if we keep our focus on Him, when we stumble and fall (and we will), God will help us get back up. God will help us pick up the pieces. In case you wondered what Reconciliation was all about.
God will give us the grace and the strength to try again. To take another step closer to Him.
If we keep our focus on God, God won’t give up on us. No matter how many times we stumble and fall.
Today’s Readings
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