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Corinthians 9.8-9 (RSV)
And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. As it is written, “He scatters abroad, he gives to the poor; his righteousness endures for ever."

Every day when I wake up, I make my way into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. I check to see if the kids are up and return to my room to get ready to walk the dog on her morning excursion. I then return home to check my email, fix my lunch, and watch the kids get on the bus. Then I get myself prepared for the coming day and make the short commute to the church. Pretty much, I do the same things in the same order each and every morning.

While the predictability is comforting as I can plan and dream in my “usual” times, the times that I break from this routine can invite some new insights as well. Last week, I was at the TCU/Brite Minister’s Week in Fort Worth. “The Power to Bless” was a theme that carried out in our learning opportunities and lectures, as well as small group encounters and our communal worship. During all of these, I was reminded that to bless is done in and through me. I have been blessed in common and ordinary ways. The question and challenge is: “how might I imagine inviting people to be blessed as I have been.”

Lent offers a time like this as well, a disruption from the ordinary allowing us to look carefully at our lives and ask ourselves: Where am I blessed? How might I share it with others? As I saw in a movie recently a minister asks a guy “Waiting for someone?” The guy responds, “Yeah, you could say that. It looks like he's out at the moment.” And the minister says, “Well, maybe that's why he sent me.”
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Grace and peace,
Rev. Brian