Day 4: Follow me and everything will be alright...

17 February - Day 4: St Luke 5: 27-32

 Slept at 4 am despite going to bed at 1 am. The noise kept me up. We had a bunch of friends visiting this weekend and in spite of my best efforts to carry on the morning routine, today it was stalled. To be honest, I had given myself some leeway to be flexible with this exercise, because I knew that on some days it was not going to be realistically possible to wake at 6 am.

It was such a distracting day! I was sleep deprived and not my usual self due to a lack of sleep. Toddler had a heavy, sickly cough that didn't sound good at all. I was too preoccupied by happenings, the plan for the day, cooking and other things which made me want to not concentrate or take time out to read the Bible. But, I did make myself do it for 10 minutes once he fell asleep. I have come to look forward and even rely on this exercise for a sliver of meaning to my day.

Today's Gospel is from St. Luke 5:27-32:

 Jesus answered the Pharisees: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance".

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Thoughts: Today's is one of the more straightforward verses that I'd grown up hearing. The one where Jesus calls the tax collector sinner dude and says to him:"Follow me".

 I've even heard my dad quoting this one a few times to me at home. Being spiritually sick can actually affect all areas of your life - I've never thought of it as THAT crucial, but I think in reality, we rarely recognize or acknowledge or even consider the possibility of this.

 We think we have mental or emotional problems, while actually ignoring what goes on at the core of our soul - I've done this a lot. I've immersed myself in the daily routine and activities and different jobs and relationships to feel productive and purposeful, but actually it's not really filled up spaces inside. I think this verse speaks to this emptiness or loneliness we feel at times.

Reading "Follow me" over and over again focused me and it gave me peace even as other distractions took over at the end of those 10 minutes.

Takeaway: My meaning and quest for peace and joy lies in knowing God, and only Him, and all else will fall into place. (This is the ideal).

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