Dai­ly Reflec­tion
July 17, 2019

Wednesday of the Fif­teenth week in Ordi­nary Time
Lectionary: 391
Car­ol Zuegner

We often search for signs, for some kind of indi­ca­tion that we are doing the right thing, mak­ing the right deci­sion, head­ing down the right path. It would be help­ful if those signs could be as vis­i­ble as the one Moses received from God in the first read­ing. It’s hard to miss a burn­ing bush. What God was ask­ing Moses to do was an enor­mous task so a shrub con­fla­gra­tion seems an appro­pri­ate signal.

Moses isn’t sure he’s up to the task: Who am I to do this, he asks God. I do that too, some­times when I know I should be doing the right thing, but peer pres­sure, habit can lead to the eas­i­er way. But, like Moses, I can’t use the excuse that I was just walk­ing by and hap­pened upon a burn­ing bush.  I have to do the right thing and I can because God is with me.

The gospel is sim­ple, yet pow­er­ful. It car­ries through the theme of how we each are cho­sen by God. You do not have to be the wise and learned – some things are revealed to the child­like.  To me, that means that I can be cho­sen by God as a leader in my own life, even as I con­tin­ue to work on under­stand­ing and learn­ing what that role should be and how I should live that life. My rela­tion­ship with God evolves and changes as I evolve and change.

I doubt that God will pro­duce a burn­ing bush to get my atten­tion. I still have to pay atten­tion, to pray and to be open to what God has in store for me. Even if the path seems hard and lit­tle trav­eled, I have to remem­ber that God is with me.

Car­ol Zuegner

Pro­fes­sor Emeri­ta of Journalism

Writ­ing and read­ing the Dai­ly Reflec­tions helps me con­nect with my faith.