September 11, 2026 // Friday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s First Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22b-27 

Reflect on the Word // 

I hate running . . . I hate running . . . I hate running . . .

That’s what ran through my mind one February night of my sophomore year, as I made my way nowhere on the human hamster wheel (aka the treadmill). At the beginning of a new semester, I’d determined to start exercising more regularly, and I was hating every minute.

Then, I heard what I knew was our Lord, saying, Then why are you running away from My will?

I managed to hit the “off” button before tripping, unceremoniously, off the machine and beelining for the exit.

Until that moment I, unlike Saint Paul, had been running aimlessly, seeking my own will, what I thought would make me happy (see 1 Corinthians 9:26). I was not running the race to win the imperishable crown. I was running to win a crown of my own making, based on my own will, what I believed would make me truly happy (see 1 Corinthians 9:24).

From the time He formed me in my mother’s womb and the baptismal waters poured over me as He claimed me as His beloved daughter, He had a plan for me, how He’d created me to love.

But, from the time my will became my own, I had plans; I thought I knew my purpose and destiny, and that’s where I ran, time and again.

To this day I call it my “Jesus mic drop moment.” Why are you running away from My will for you? Those words pierced me to the depths and changed the course of my life. I slowly walked back to my dorm room that night and made a phone call that ultimately ended in my yes to give my all “for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it” (1 Corinthians 9:23).

We all do it in some way: We run from Him, deciding our plans are better until we run into a dead end, turn around, and find Him there ready to point us back to His path and guide us to that imperishable crown that awaits us in the glory of Heaven.

Relate to the Lord // Are you running from God’s will in some way? Take a step towards Him in obedience today.