Compiled by: Georgeanne Falstrom, Intern
PARISH LAY MINISTRY ACADEMY
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Monday March 06, 2006
(Daily readings: Ps 41,44,52; Gen 37:1-11; 1Cor 1:20-31; Mark 1:1-13)

CAN YOU FIX IT?
By Rhonda Fields

Scripture: I said, "O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you." Psalm 41

"It’s broken."
"Yes, I know it’s broken, but can you fix it?"
"It would take an act of God! How did you manage to let it get this bad?"
"I didn’t know that when the car started clacking it needed oil."
…explicative deleted…
(The names from the above conversation have been omitted to protect the guilty.)

The car engine had to be replaced at no small expense. It had given me small clues for weeks that there was a problem, but I ignored it and turned the radio up to drown out the noise.

Looking back, I notice that our lives are often like my car. We go along, not noticing or denying that our lives are in decline until something major makes us re-evaluate ourselves. At that point, there is only one thing to do. We must acknowledge whose fault it is – ours. Then we must take it to the only mechanic in all of time and space who can fix a broken life – God.

Luckily, our Father in heaven is much more forgiving than my car. My car needed motor oil to keep it healthy; our hearts need the oil of God’s love. Through an act of uncompromising love, God sent his one and only Son to be humbled for we who lack humility; to live a sinless life for we who revel in our sin; and to die so that we could have the heart of God installed in place of our failing one.

Meditation: And so, we pray this prayer with the Psalmist:

Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen. Psalm 41:13