10-10-19 - Tuned to Notice

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Have you heard the one about the person desperate for a parking spot – late for a meeting, stressed to the max, circling the block, praying, “Dear God, I need a parking space. Please!!!” Turns the corner – lo and behold, there’s a space, right in front of the building. Pulls in, glances skyward and waves, “Never mind – found one.”

One came back. Nine kept walking. Jesus noticed the differential – “‘Were not ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’”
All ten set out in faith – they weren't healed beforehand. “As they went, they were made clean.” That’s what it means to walk by faith – miracles happen as we go. Twelve baskets of bread and fish just kept not running out as 5000 were fed; cisterns of water became finest wine as they were drawn off.

Nine took the gift in stride. Only one turned back – back to his place of suffering, a place of alienation and degradation – to praise God, to thank the stranger whose word made him clean. He knew that only God could heal like this, and he wanted to connect with this man in whom God’s power was so strong. Do we want to connect with Jesus like that?

A Water Daily reader told me she’d been keeping a gratitude journal for while, challenging herself to note at least four things each day for which she is grateful. In time, the notations multiplied and she set herself a new challenge: to write down each day where or in whom she saw God.

Tuning our inner eyes and ears to know, “Ah… that was a God-moment,” or learning to distinguish Holy Spirit nudges from our own intuition, or seeing God’s love or forgiveness in another person, opens our spirits to a greater awareness of just how active God is around us. It’s not occasional – it’s all the time. Soon, we come to recognize that what we call “miracles” are just the way God works, as someone invites God’s power and love into our situations.

Try on either or both of those spiritual practices for two weeks, a gratitude journal or a “where did I perceive God” journal. They are training exercises for spiritual fitness. They build up our strength and resilience, tone our faith muscles, hone our faith senses.

When we name our gifts, we remember the Giver – and then it’s natural to come back in praise and gratitude. And then, my oh my, we find the Giver has even more for us...

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