My alarm goes off at 8:15. I wake up, prepare for the day, and go to class at 9:30. I spend the day in classes or working, returning home around 5 pm. I make and eat something quick and easy for dinner, then proceed to do various activities in the evening usually revolving around homework. Weekends provide a welcome relief from the daily routine, involving lots of sleeping, making good food, spending time with friends, and fun. And of course, I work on the inevitable homework that must get done before Monday morning. My life is full of standard routine and little variation in the grand scheme of things. Rarely do I pause during my daily routine and question why I choose to make this my life. Why is it that I am at college? What do I hope to accomplish with my life? Is my daily routine taking me closer to that goal or farther away? Am I actively seeking out new opportunity, or am I waiting for somebody else to approach me with a plan of action?

In the gospel reading for today, the man who has been ill for 38 years follows the same routine of going to the pools that provide relief and healing. When Jesus asks this man if he wants to be well, his answer revolves around the pools. He is not looking for anything different from what he already knows and is familiar with -- his routine. The healing power of Jesus frees this man from his illness even when he is still focused on the pools. Jesus offers the man an opportunity to be healed that is different than his goal of relief in the pools. This leads me to the thought of how is Jesus offering me an opportunity and how long will it take me to recognize that offer? It might take 38 years of illness before I am able to figure out what it is that I can do with my life to bring the light of God to my world and shed that light for others. How long until I allow God’s river of healing to touch me and bring forth the abundance in my life that it creates on the riverbank described in the first reading from Ezekiel?

The season of Lent is an opportunity to grow closer to God and contemplate the great love God shows us through Jesus Christ. My prayer this Lent is that I use this season to break myself of the habit of routine and use this extraordinary season to meditate on the influence of God in my life. I pray that I can recognize the opportunity Jesus extends to me every day and use the gifts given to me to bring life and abundance to my daily routine.