Dai­ly Reflec­tion
June 18, 2025

I’m writ­ing the reflec­tion while vis­it­ing my newest grand­child. He’s healthy, beau­ti­ful and utter­ly help­less. How strange would it be if my love was con­di­tion­al or con­trac­tu­al? What if I thought “I’ll give him all I can if he works for it.” I know it sounds ridicu­lous, but I sense this kind of log­ic in the pros­per­i­ty gospel so com­mon today, “Give until it hurts, and God will repay you many times over.”

Instead in today’s read­ings, I get the sense that it’s all about the love of God – toward all of us. God pro­vides “in every way for all gen­eros­i­ty, which through us pro­duces thanks­giv­ing to God”. Nature can be destruc­tive and dead­ly, but I don’t con­sid­er nature to have evil intent. Evil comes into the world through the prac­tice of peo­ple but so does love. God uses our sow­ing and giv­ing to bring love, His love, into the world. 

Why don’t I bring God’s love into the world more abun­dant­ly? Because I’m afraid; I lack trust. The gospel ends today with the phrase, “And your Father who sees what is hid­den will repay you.” Once I was clear­ly moved to help a home­less man. I knew this man over a few weeks, and he could use some help. I hes­i­tat­ed. What if he asked to take a show­er in my house? What if he want­ed to spend time with me? I was afraid. I knew what I had to do, and I want­ed to act. I final­ly asked if I could help him. He said I could. He real­ly want­ed a pack of mark­ers. He didn’t like to beg, and if he had some mark­ers, he could make art to sell in the park. That was it. He nev­er asked for help again. 

How did God repay me for the mark­ers? Like the ear­ly church lead­ers, I don’t think the scrip­ture is talk­ing about mon­ey. God did repay me in virtue. I was less afraid for a while. I’m sur­prised how eas­i­ly I can fall back into my old ways of self­ish­ness and fear. 

How do I dust off when I real­ize I’ve slipped back into my old habits? I start with a prayer of grat­i­tude. I real­ize what I want to do, and I “must do as already deter­mined, with­out sad­ness or com­pul­sion, for God loves a cheer­ful giv­er.” Since it’s between God and me, I don’t need to con­sid­er progress or com­par­i­son. I just need to trust and act. God repays me in virtue and faith through practice. 

What’s your strat­e­gy to reset your prac­tice? How do you notice you’re off track? I am curi­ous. Please feel free to send me a note.