Reflect
Have you ever found yourself wanting to pray, perhaps even kneeling in a chapel, filled with the best intentions, but suddenly your eyes are closing and your head is drooping—despite your best efforts you simply can’t stay awake. Consider this: the apostles did the same. The Gospels tell us multiple times of their weakness, exhaustion, and fear. Walking with Jesus does not imbue us with superpowers. In fact, if Scripture is to be trusted—the yoke that is easy—can also be very hard work. Despite our best efforts, we will still be overcome by the frailty of the flesh— not just temptations, but the basic human needs of hunger and rest. Perhaps the real mystery is this: Our frailty seems to be part of God’s plan: It continually reinforces the need to depend on him.
Pray
Dear Lord,
I am exhausted and hungry and sometimes afraid.
I feel like I have nothing left to give,
but I offer even that to you.
I offer you my exhaustion, my hunger,
and even my fear and place myself before you.
In all that I do, in all that I need, in all
that I am—I am yours.
Act
Read Luke 9:28–36—the story of the Transfiguration. Peter, James, and John are taken up the mountain with Jesus, but overcome with sleep, they awaken to find Jesus transfigured and the presence of God descending around them. Sometimes like the disciples we, too, find it hard to stay awake—even in the presence of our Lord. And yet, these are the same three disciples that Jesus will take aside with him on Gethsemane. And again they fall asleep. One message we might learn from the Gospels is: We are not called to be faultless; we are called to be faithful.
