Is 65:17-21 / Jn 4:43-54
No matter how young and healthy we are, there are times when we feel mighty old. It’s a feeling that comes from deep inside, a feeling that we’ve ‘been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.’ Our routines and the ordinariness of life can back us into that frame of mind, and even more so our perceived lack of progress and advancement: After all this time and all this effort, what have I got to show? Why am I still just running around the same old track again and again, like an over-the-hill racehorse?
Those feelings can be messages from God, sometimes warning us that we have indeed lost our way and are wasting our time, and sometimes warning us that we’ve forgotten the very good reasons why we’re doing some of the things we need to do every day. In either case, as Isaiah says in today’s first reading, God wants ‘to create new heavens and a new earth.’ He wants to teach us ‘the words of a new song,’ and give us a fresh and hopeful vision of what our present can mean and what our future can be.
Let the Lord refresh your drooping spirit. Let him show you how the world looks through his eyes. You have a wonderful destiny. Don’t ever forget it, and don’t ever betray it.
