What Is God Saying to Us This Week?

The Curious Pilgrim — Daily Office Reflections
Sunday, August 16, 2026

As I look back over this week’s Daily Office readings, I realize we have traveled quite a road together.

There have been stories of broken families, difficult choices, consequences, reconciliation, suffering, healing, unexpected grace, and celebration.

And through all of them, one truth keeps appearing:

God is still working.

On Friday I asked a simple question:

When have I seen God’s goodness today?

I like that question because it requires me to stop and pay attention.

God’s goodness doesn’t always appear in some spectacular miracle.

Sometimes it is found in a conversation.

A friendship.

A meal around a table.

A beautiful piece of music.

A moment of laughter.

An unexpected kindness.

A prayer answered differently from the way I expected.

Sometimes grace looks like water becoming wine at a wedding feast.

But this week also reminded me that following Jesus involves choices.

The rich man came to Jesus wanting eternal life. Mark tells us something beautiful:

Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Jesus loved him before the man made his decision.

Jesus invited him to follow.

But Jesus allowed him to choose.

And the man walked away.

That is important to me.

Jesus loves us. Jesus invites us. But Jesus allows us to choose.

God does not force us to follow.

Our choices are real, and because they are real, they have consequences.

We saw that repeatedly in the story of David and his family.

One person’s actions affected another person.

Hurt became anger.

Anger became vengeance.

Vengeance produced more hurt.

We also discovered that sometimes we suffer because of choices other people make.

We cannot control every person around us.

We cannot make someone else choose wisely.

And we cannot always prevent another person’s choices from changing the road we are traveling.

God does not promise to remove all those consequences.

But God gives us something else.

Grace.

Mercy.

Strength.

Presence.

God’s grace does not pretend our bad choices never happened.

Grace does not erase responsibility.

Grace does not magically remove every consequence.

Instead, grace meets us there.

Grace gives us what we need to face what has happened, learn from it, grow through it, make a different choice, and continue walking.

That brings me to another question we asked this week:

Can I trust God when I cannot see the whole picture?

That may be one of the hardest lessons of faith.

I like to understand.

I like to know where the road is going.

I like to know what comes next.

But a pilgrim rarely sees the entire road.

Sometimes all we can see is the next step.

So we walk.

We listen.

We learn.

We trust.

And sometimes another person helps us see something we could not see by ourselves.

Then yesterday’s readings gave us another question:

Am I open enough to recognize God’s work when it appears in a way I wasn’t expecting?

Jesus healed a man who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years.

The man stood up.

He picked up his mat.

He walked.

And some people saw only that he was carrying his mat on the Sabbath.

They were looking at a miracle and almost missed the miracle.

That challenges me.

I don’t want to become so certain about how God is supposed to work that I fail to recognize what God is actually doing.

Maybe that is why I continue to call myself The Curious Pilgrim.

I want to keep asking questions.

I want to keep listening.

I want to keep learning.

I want to remain open to being surprised by grace.

Because God is still working.

God is working whether I see God or not.

God is working whether I feel God’s presence or not.

God is working whether I hear God’s voice or not.

God is working whether any of my senses recognize what is happening.

God is still working.

So what is God saying to me through this week’s Daily Office readings?

Perhaps it is this:

Look for my goodness.

Choose carefully.

Accept that choices have consequences.

Receive my grace when you get it wrong.

Trust me when you cannot see the whole picture.

Stay open to what I am doing.

And keep walking.

That is enough for this Curious Pilgrim today.

I don’t have to see the entire road.

I simply need enough faith to take the next step, enough curiosity to keep watching for grace, and enough humility to recognize that God may be working in ways I never expected.

Because whether I see it, feel it, hear it, or sense it at all—

God is still working.