PRAYER

God, fill our minds with truth, inflame our hearts with love, inspire our will with courage, enrich our lives with service, pardon what we have been, sanctify who we are and order what we should be. Amen.

READING

Luke 18:9-14 (NLT)

⁹ Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: ¹⁰ “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! ¹² I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

REFELCTION

I have a confession. I judge people by how they return their shopping carts. If they leave it beside their car and make it someone else's problem, then I think they're selfish. If they just shove it willy nilly into the cart return causing a chaotic non-linear jumble, I think they don't care about people's time. I make myself feel morally superior when I put my cart back properly. Unfortunately, I have a bad habit too. I constantly reshelve groceries inside the store. I change my mind on a product and I'll leave spaghetti noodles beside the granola bars, or worse, frozen chicken fingers in the cereal aisle. Just when I think I'm better than others, I am reminded I too can be selfish and disrespectful of other people's time. Before you think me a monster, I have to confess I've made up this antidote or at least I've grossly exaggerated, or ... ok perhaps I may have done this once... or twice but not more than four times, per month. We have to be careful when we use morality sticks to measure our behaviour against someone else. The only person we are to measure ourselves against is Christ and since He is perfect, we have all fallen short.

Those who come to the cross of Christ with humility and cry out, "Have mercy, O Lord, on me a sinner" will truly be exalted by God. All throughout the Scriptures, we see that the Kingdom of God is opposite to our Earthly world. Up is down, down is up. In today's Scripture reading we learn that if you make yourself high, you will be treated low. If you make yourself low, you will be treated high. May God grant us the humility to have an honest look at ourselves.

LENT CHECK IN

Think about tucking in chairs in your classroom (after lunch or at the end of the day) as something you could do to be kind.

Consider walking around your house and putting back items that are not where they should be (socks under the couch, snack wrappers on tables, gaming accessories into their ports, clothes into hampers, etc)

If interested, read an article about Why People Don't Return Their Shopping Carts