😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace and presence be with you. I see bits of me in both the Pharisee and the tax collector mentioned in Sunday’s Gospel reading from Luke 18:9-14.
‘He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.
“Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’ I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”’
We live in a world, in which it’s common practice to be formulating a “one up” response to a conversation, instead of actually listening to what is being said. We seem to be constantly trying to look better than or out do what the other person has done. We get caught in the comparison game. What we should be asking ourselves is, “Is this person or that person the standard by which I should be living my life or comparing myself to?”
It’s a real challenge to be humble, while boasting about yourself. In humility, we place God as our standard to live by, not our neighbor, coworker, friends, or family. As Matthew Kelly put it in his book Holy Moments, “You were made in the image of God. Act Accordingly.” When we stop the comparison game, we are free to live as and be exactly the person God intended us to be. The door is open for you to humbly take a step closer to God.
Bless others and be blessed.
Shelly :0)
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#MeganWoods – The Truth
Third Day Devotions 