SAINT JOHN I, POPE AND MARTYR (OPTIONAL MEMORIAL)

I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God. 

Have you ever tried to assemble something really complicated? You keep checking the instructions, and when you run into something that doesn’t make sense, you try your best to figure it out. Sometimes you have to improvise, but when you get it right in the end, you take pride in a job well done.

In today’s first reading (Acts 20:17-27), St. Paul gathers the elders of the church in Ephesus to say farewell. He tells them that he has completed his work there and will never see them again. He knows that he has tried his best to stick with Jesus’ instructions as he evangelized them and built them up in the faith. He also knows that there were times when the unexpected happened and he had to improvise, trusting that the Holy Spirit would help him (Acts 19:8-10; 20:19-20).

Wouldn’t it be nice to have that same kind of confidence? To know that you did everything you could and that you tried your hardest to follow God’s will?

If this kind of confidence seems unrealistic, recall Paul’s words to the elders in Ephesus. He never claimed to have done everything perfectly, but he went about “proclaiming . . . the entire plan of God” (Acts 20:27). He certainly didn’t have complete success at every turn! But what he did do was pour everything he had into the calling God had given him and leave the results to the Lord.

If you wake up each morning and tell Jesus that you want to pour your heart and soul into following him that day, you can start the day with the same confidence Paul had. And if you try to stay faithful to that intention during the day, you can end the day peacefully. You may not have done everything right, but you will have tried. If you fell into sin, you can repent. And if your best-laid plans were disrupted, you can place them in God’s hands.

So let Paul show you today that it is enough to simply try your best to cooperate with God’s grace.

“Jesus, help me to walk in your footsteps and have confidence that you will guide me and help me today.”

Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21
John 17:1-11
Acts 20:17-27

WORD AMONG US