Today’s readings prompt me to examine how I see God in my everyday life. God is everywhere and always with us, but I do find myself too easily swept up into the day to day ‘to-do’s as I enter second semester. Juggling appointments, scheduling meetings, answering messages, and connecting with students as they return to campus, along with other life responsibilities often leaves me with a further list of tasks. In the midst of my busy-ness, I do not stop to slow down enough to recognize where and who God is in my ‘comings’ and ‘goings’, to say nothing of allowing time to nurture my relationship with God’s presence.

Where is God? Are there times that we do not see or recognize God’s presence because of our perspectives - the lenses of our life obscuring God’s working in others? Are we really IN relationship with God?

Today’s scriptures all proclaim God’s presence among us.

In Hebrews, we are reminded that Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. Because of Christ’s coming, we live in relationship with our God who embraces us completely. But are we able to accept and live as if God’s loving presence gives us life in every aspect of our day to day struggles, joys, grief, love, and interactions with others?

Today psalmist enthusiastically invites us to, “Sing a new song, for God has done marvelous works”. God has made salvation known and has revealed justice, kindness and faithfulness to all the peoples. But what does that look like in my world today? Am I filled with joy and energized by each day, or bogged down by the ‘have to do’s in my life?

In Mark, Jesus cures many of the people’s maladies, even on the Sabbath. As he calls the apostles and speaks with the crowds that come to hear and be with him, the religious leaders grow increasingly disturbed and begin to plot his destruction, accusing Jesus of being possessed by the devil. Jesus’ concerned family comes to try to bring him home to safety.

However, Jesus’ continues to teach and boldly denounces the Jewish leaders for their accusations. He explains that his power is NOT from Satan (“If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand…that is the end of him.”) and proclaims that God forgives all things….except those who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit.

Jesus invites us to realize that to accept him is to accept God’s spirit in our lives, but to reject relationship with God cuts us off from being in God’s presence. If one rejects the Holy Spirit’s presence, then it is impossible for God to be in relationship with that person(s). To relate takes both parties’ willingness to be for/with the other.

Recognizing God’s presence in my life takes time for reflection, and demands that I step back from my schedule, to slow down the ‘doing’ and to allow myself to BE…in relationship with God, to let God show me the ‘marvelous works’ of God’s presence in my life through and with others.

In these new weeks of second semester, my prayer is that each of us will slow down enough to recognize God’s marvelous works in our lives…to take time to just BE in God’s presence and truly in relationship with the loving, forgiving and all embracing love of God’s Spirit in our daily lives.