7 November, Saturday — How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything

Saturday of Week 31 in Ordinary Time

Phi 4:10-19
Lk 16:9-15

“The man who can be trusted in little things can be trusted in great”

I have been driving for many years now, and one of the things I have had to contend with (until the last year), was parking coupons. This system works on an ‘honour basis’, and requires one to firstly, choose how many coupons to use in order to match the desired parking period, and secondly, to tear off the tabs denoting the date and starting time of the parking session.

One of the things I used to do was to start the coupons a little later, usually by about 15 minutes. In my mind, I did not think there was anything wrong with it; I wasn’t hurting anyone!

This changed when I met someone who was sharing the same frustration. The only difference was this; she strongly believed that being a Christian, she had to make the right choices, even in the smallest things. If she chose to be dishonest in even the smallest things; it would mean that her integrity, and values, would be ‘flexible’. How would that reflect on her?

That short conversation had a huge impact on me; like that lady (I could not remember who she was, no matter how hard I tried), I stopped stealing the 15 minutes. I am not perfect; I still make wrong choices, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

The Gospel talks about this today, and we see a similar theme in the Parable of the Good Steward. It occurred to me that every little thing we do (or don’t do, in the case of omission), we reflect our attitudes towards the gifts that God has given us. Thus, if I am given a task of sweeping the floor, or washing the dishes, then how I do these tasks is a microcosm of our relationship with God!

Brothers and sisters, this realisation has made a huge difference in my life. The challenge is in remembering this, and more importantly, walking this talk every single day, in every single task.

(Today’s Oxygen by Paul Wee)

Prayer: Father, we pray that we will be able to realise and remember that whatever we do, we do it as a reflection of how we see You. Help us to always offer our actions and thoughts to You.

Thanksgiving : Thank you Father, for teaching us this truth. We are glad for the opportunity to be able to live our faith in little ways.