Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ten attendants wait for a wedding, all carrying lamps, but only five bring extra oil. When the groom is delayed past midnight, the unprepared five have to go source more supply, and by the time they return, the opportunity has closed. The story isn't really about the one dramatic night. It's about the accumulated difference between people who maintained margin as an ordinary discipline and people who assumed they'd have time to acquire it when it actually mattered.

Most professional failures follow the same pattern. Rarely does a single catastrophic decision sink a career or a project. More often it's a long series of reasonable-sounding deferrals - the skill not developed because there was always a more urgent deadline, the relationship not maintained because it wasn't currently useful - that leaves someone without margin exactly when margin is required. The five foolish attendants didn't do anything obviously wrong at any single point. They simply never got around to the unglamorous maintenance that readiness actually requires.

Wisdom's reading tonight offers a genuine comfort alongside the warning: she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her. Preparedness isn't a secret reserved for the naturally disciplined. It's available to anyone willing to do the boring work of it consistently, long before the deadline that will eventually test it.

Identify one area of margin - a skill, a relationship, a reserve of any kind - that you've been deferring maintenance on because nothing urgent currently demands it. Invest in it this week specifically because nothing urgent demands it yet.

Lord, let me build margin as an ordinary discipline, not scramble for it once the moment that needs it has already arrived. Amen.