A Sunday Thought to Start the Week Off Right

Heading off to church with Psalm 25 in my mind and heart. It reminds us of how we should be despite the fact that our lives may not be perfect - or ever be so.

No matter that this week's work was particularly difficult and exhausting; or that an injury threw off the usual workout routine; or that some family issue that seems never to be resolved popped up yet again; or that crowded planes and airports made this round of travel particularly trying; or that the upcoming election really is between two candidates about as far from Washington and Lincoln as my travel destination was from my home; or that the Pope's latest strange communication seems to fly in the face of traditional Catholic teaching (no surprise there); or that a mountain of work still sits there waiting for Monday's breakout from the starting gate of a another week. It's just life, after all. No guarantees of glory or fun or even temporary happiness doled out like the ice cream Dad used to dish out when I was a kid.

So here's David, in the midst of his distress, addressing God, showing us how we should be thinking and praying despite any and all of our own distress:

Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in my innocence:
and I have put my trust in the Lord, and shall not be weakened.
Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart.
For thy mercy is before my eyes; and I am well please with thy truth.

I have not sat with the council of vanity:
neither will I go in with the doers of unjust things.
I have hated the assembly of the malignant; and with the wicked I will not sit.

I will wash my hands among the innocent, and will compass they altar, O Lord:
That I may hear the voice of thy praise: and tell of thy wondrous works.
I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of thy house; and the place where thy glory dwelleth.
Take not away my soul, O God, with the wicked: 
nor my life with bloody men: in whose hands are iniquities:
their right hand is filled with gifts.

Bus as for me, I have walked in my innocence: redeem me, and have mercy on me.

My foot hath stood in the direct way: in the churches I will bless thee, O Lord.

Would that I could walk in innocence as I head for church today. Would that my feet stand in the "direct way" rather than wandering this way and that from the straight path. But, by Your mercy, I will bless thee, O Lord, this Sunday. I will, with sorrow for sin in my heart, and a firm purpose of amendment, approach the altar to receive Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God!