NOVEMBER 12, 2026

  “To be in Christ -- that is redemption; but for Christ to be in you -- that is sanctification!” 

― W. Ian Thomas

EZEKIAL 1-3

1He said to me, “Son of man,^a stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” 2As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

3He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day.(2:1-3) 

HEBREWS 9

14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death,^c so that we may serve the living God!

JOURNAL 

I am just beginning to understand what it means to be intentional with the moment I am in. I wish I had understood this earlier in my life. I think about how many ordinary moments I hurried through because my mind was already on what came next. Even when I was doing something I enjoyed, part of me was somewhere else, planning how things should go or worrying about how they might turn out.

Meditation was where I first began to notice this. I would sit still and pay attention to my breathing, and within seconds my mind would be rehearsing a conversation or trying to solve a problem that hadn’t happened yet. Then I would come back to the breath I was taking. I could feel my shoulders relax. I could hear the sounds around me. For a few seconds, I was actually there. Now I am learning to bring that same attention into whatever I am doing, and it is changing more than I expected.

When I exercise, I can feel the movement, pay attention to my breathing, and put my energy into the rep I am doing. At school, I can slow down long enough to hear what a student is trying to ask, even with a lesson to finish. When I rest, I can enjoy the quiet without spending it working through tomorrow in my head. I still care about finishing the workout and teaching the lesson well. What surprises me is how much more I experience when I give my attention to what I am doing. Sometimes I even discover that the moment calls for something different from what I had planned.

I think that is part of what I am learning about surrender. In Ezekiel, God speaks, the Spirit enters him and raises him to his feet, and Ezekiel hears what God is asking of him. I have usually read that passage thinking about the assignment God gave Ezekiel. This morning I keep coming back to what happened before he was sent. The Spirit moved within him. That gives me a way to think about Ian Thomas’s words about Christ being in us. What might it look like to be attentive to Christ in me while I teach a class, listen to someone I love, or sit quietly at the end of the day?

I wish I had learned this sooner, and I am grateful I am beginning to see it now. When my mind starts running ahead, I can take a breath and come back to the next six seconds. I can give my energy to what is here, pay attention to the person in front of me, and trust God with how it turns out. I am beginning to see how much of the life I want to experience with God is already happening in these ordinary moments.

23Above all else, guard your heart,

for everything you do flows from it.

PROVERBS 4:23