{"id":13944,"date":"2024-07-29T09:26:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T13:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/notstrictlyspiritual.com\/?p=13944"},"modified":"2024-07-29T09:26:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-29T13:26:53","slug":"less-worry-more-courage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/notstrictlyspiritual.com\/give-us-this-day\/less-worry-more-courage\/","title":{"rendered":"Less worry, more courage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>My reflection from today&#8217;s Gospel (John 11:19-27) in Give Us This Day:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>As much as we\u2019d like to think of ourselves as Martha in today\u2019s Scripture readings\u2014running to greet the Lord, prescient in her recognition of Jesus as the Messiah, trusting God\u2019s every word\u2014most of us probably have to admit that we are more like those in the first reading who \u201cwalk in the stubbornness of their hearts\u201d and refuse to listen.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not that we don\u2019t want to listen to God. We do, with all our heart! But we also want to be in control, thinking we can cling to the tight reins of worry and fear to guide us forward, no matter how severely we get tossed about. \u201cYou forgot the God who gave you birth,\u201d we hear in today\u2019s psalm. Guilty as charged.<\/p>\n<p>So how do we go from being unmindful of our Creator to having the courage of Martha? It begins when we release our grip on the reins of our life and surrender control to God.<\/p>\n<p>To be sure, there\u2019s nothing easy about that prospect, and yet we have role models like Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, who show us how to pause, listen, and say \u201cyes, Lord,\u201d even when every instinct tells us to run in the opposite direction. Can we instead face Jesus and as Martha did, say with confidence: \u201cI know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you\u201d? Can we let go of our stubbornness of heart and cling to what God has promised?<\/p>\n<p><em>Mary DeTurris Poust, \u201cLess Worry, More Courage,\u201d from the July 2024 issue of Give Us This Day, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.giveusthisday.org\">www.giveusthisday.org<\/a> (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2024). Used with permission.<br \/>\n<\/em><em>Photo by Mary DeTurris Poust<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My reflection from today&#8217;s Gospel (John 11:19-27) in Give Us This Day: As much as we\u2019d like to think of ourselves as Martha in today\u2019s Scripture readings\u2014running to greet the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[528],"tags":[304,391,244,794,795],"class_list":["post-13944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-give-us-this-day","tag-control","tag-give-us-this-day","tag-letting-go","tag-martha-and-mary","tag-worry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Less worry, more courage &#8211; Not Strictly Spiritual<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A reflection on Mary, Martha and Lazarus from today&#039;s Gospel in Give Us This Day. 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