Jer 11:18-20 Ps 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12 Jn 7:40-53

Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer The Daily Reflections Praying Lent

The dispute among those who heard the words of Jesus was whether Jesus was the Prophet, the Christ, or the Messiah.  This created a division among the believers.  The guards were timid to arrest Jesus because they said, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”  The reaction of the Pharisees was contempt and the reaction of Nicodemus was timid.  His heart was telling him to defend Jesus, but his head told him to not take the risk.  I feel like this is the battle we play out in our lives daily.  When we make decisions do we follow our heart or do we listen to our head?  This is a very difficult balance to find, because we want to be smart with our decisions but at the same time follow our passion and listen to God. 

In today’s readings we are challenged to take a stand for Christ and for the Gospel.  After reading the Gospel I asked myself if I would have had the courage to stand up for Jesus, or if I would have shied away at the risk like Nicodemus.  I like to think that I would have known what the right thing to do was and would have stood up for Jesus.  Realistically I know I would have been timid as Nicodemus was, possibly even more timid than him.  I am not the type of person to take large risks and would probably have listened to my head and done nothing. 

This is the problem that I, as well as many others, have.  I use my head as my voice of reason when I should be listening to God and listening to my heart.  When I talk to God I often ask why I have such a hard time listening to him.  I think the problem is that my head is so busy thinking that it gets in the way of what God or my heart is trying to say to me.  The challenge in this reading is to truly listen to God and to turn away from thinking with our head too much.