Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?" - 1 Kings 3:9

Solomon had a blank check from God and he asked for wisdom. Specifically: an understanding heart to serve the people he had been given and to know right from wrong. Not an easy life. Not success. Not the defeat of his enemies. The wisdom to serve well and to discern clearly.

The man who found the treasure in the field sold everything else with joy - not reluctantly, not with grief, with joy. Because once he had found the real thing, everything else was easy to release. That is what happens inside a man when he finds what actually matters.

All things work for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Paul wrote this from prison. He had been shipwrecked and beaten and was imprisoned again when he put it on paper. The working for good is not the same as the feeling of good. It is a conviction about where everything is going, held by a man who has been through enough to know the difference.

Brother, what would you ask God for if he appeared to you and said ask for anything? Solomon's answer is diagnostic - he asked for what he needed to serve the people entrusted to him, not for his own benefit. What does your honest first answer reveal about where your ambition is actually pointed? Name it to another man this week.

Lord, give me an understanding heart - not a successful outcome, not an easy road, but the wisdom to know right from wrong and to serve the people you have given me. All things work for good. Let me trust that enough to act on it. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us. Amen.