Choosing God's Will

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time

This Sunday, the second reading will be from Ephesians 5:15-20, but I’d strongly suggest reading the other readings. It’s lectionary # 119, if you’re reading from a hard copy.

In this section of the letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul exhorts members of the church in Ephesus to live wisely, to  make the most of opportunities, to refrain from drunkenness, and to address one another with spiritual language, and give thanks in all things.

Perhaps it is the fact that we were recently in a car accident and had a lot of things to sort out in the aftermath, but I’ve seen these very verses in my life lately.

Only a few days after the accident, Daniel had the sudden and somewhat emotional realization that he is a more aggressive driver, and if he had been driving, he probably would still be in the hospital with a crushed leg, because he would have been further into the intersection when the collision occurred.

We were very thankful that the situation was not that way, because as it was, we didn’t have any serious injuries.

We did fall into error once it was determined that the car was, indeed, a total loss. We bought Little Caesars that night because we were just so down about the fact that we were going to have to go car shopping. Not that that's exactly debauchery, but we weren't exactly using that pizza in the way that God intended us to use food.

At first, I do not think we were being led by the Spirit in choosing cars to look at. We were, at least in part, concerning ourselves with the desire to get a better car than we had before, with having a car that would serve us for a much longer time than our previous vehicle, with finding a car with the right mileage and the right features, because that was what we thought we needed.

As a result, we weren’t quite on the same page, and we very nearly got taken advantage of. Paul advises that we bust be wise, rather than fools - and be able to make the most of opportunities given to us.

Fortunately, the Lord was looking out for us, and reminded us of our better senses before we bought a car that would have been a mistake. We knew we would need capital later, when the time came to buy a bigger family vehicle - at least, if our plans work out, we will eventually need.

At home, we talked again - about how we need to be a little more long-sighted about what we get and how we might need to relax our parameters to get a vehicle that would allow us to do the things that would be better for our family in the future.

I remember that at some point, it - at long last - occurred to us to ask God to direct our decision.

After that, we actually took a minute to pray about it, and encourage one another to pray about the decision.

It was only after that that we found the vehicle that we eventually bought. And from start to finish, the entire time we were looking at it, everything about the vehicle felt right - and the numbers were right - we even had a little left over.

All things considered, God knew that we would need the extra money for a few little projects that we’ve been contemplating for a little while now, and we can finally make a start on them.



Let’s pray:

Lord God,
Thank you for speaking to us in our prayer lives, and for blessing us with wisdom to choose your will for us when we seek it, and we are sorry for those times that we have neglected to seek it.

We ask that you continue to bless us with wisdom and the ability to seek and follow your will for our lives, and to continue to give us the grace to do it.

Amen.