February 24, 2026 // Tuesday of the First Week of Lent
Read the Word // Open your Bible to today’s Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15
Reflect on the Word //
I am standing in the workroom, pouring cream into my tea with one hand and stifling a yawn with the other, when I hear a colleague’s voice over the hum of the copy machine.
“How are you?”
I can tell from the way her brow is knitted when I turn to face her that she really wants to know.
So I am honest: I tell her that I am wrestling with the paradox of work that is simultaneously life-giving and exhausting, that I am finding it hard to keep up, that I can’t see my desk for the stacks of ungraded papers all over it, and that most of my prep happens about twenty minutes before each class.
In short, I tell her I am taking it one day at a time, although I feel I am barely managing to do that—and I certainly don’t like it.
In a perfect world, I’d have my lesson plans typed at least a week in advance and grade assignments as soon as they come to me. I’d take on several days at a time, please and thank you, and I would never feel overwhelmed. Maybe when I’ve been at this work for another ten years, I think grimly.
Yet today’s Gospel reminds me that living day to day is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it is a grace, the sacred rhythm of divine encounter. Among the Lord’s other simple instructions for our prayer, He commands us to implore, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). In other words, Give me only what I need for this day, Lord. That is always enough. Have I ever lacked anything I’ve needed to make it through this one day I’m living right now, today?
Seen in this light, our struggles to keep up with whatever is asked of us need not cause embarrassment or frustration, sister. Instead, they get to be privileged meeting places with our God, Who waits to fill them with Himself and answer our neediness with His tender, attentive provision.
One day at a time.
Relate to the Lord // Ask the Lord to give you the grace to be present to the present moment today.
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