Scripture: You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you. Luke 11:40-41

Prayer: Sometimes I miss indication's of the Lord's impatience with me—when just within grasp I fail to seize the moment, the opportunity, the insight, perhaps even the grace that is just before me out of sloth, stubbornness, neglect, or preoccupation. Help me to shed at such times whatever keeps me from being conscious of the Lord's ever-present love.

Response: It sometime takes a pause in a hectic schedule, a moment of indecisiveness, events unfolding that are unanticipated, that causes you in grace to stop and listen. Perhaps, it was such a moment when—like china crashing to the floor and shattering—Jesus said, You fools! Don't look about and say Who me? Rather take the moment as a priceless blessing that demands your attention and reflection.

When have you sought to control an outcome in your life, or in the life of a loved one, or in circumstances that affect so many, and have been torn up, so to speak, by not getting immediate relief or understanding? Is it like the Little League parent who wants his child to become a renowned pitcher, but the child is drawn to the strings of a violin? There is so little that you control, but so much to experience, and even more to accepts, and greater still to be yielding to and trusting the Lord, even as you are bruised, twisted, turned, and fashioned at His potter's wheel.

Accept the acclamation that you are a fool. Now reflect upon why you are a fool and what is would take to accept that accolade and beg the Lord's grace and presence to speed the process of your transformation.