Lenten Mystery

There are two moments that matter. One is when you know your one and only life is absolutely valuable and alive. The other is when you know your life, as presently lived, is entirely pointless and empty. You need both of them to keep you going in the right direction. Lent is about both.  ~Richard Rohr

 

This Lent I'm doing my best to dig deep. I want to make space for God in yet deeper places within. I'm questioning, not Jesus, but what I believe and how I am shaped. Do the gospels define my Jesus or does the current Christian culture?

This past weekend, I attended the Faith and Culture Writer's Conference. I may, or may not, write more on my experience at some later date. I will say, I met prideful people there and an incredible amount of humble people. I struggled with moments of immense angry pride, but I also had moments of incredible humility. Within me, within us all, is the capability for both. I wonder: Are people who are passionate about something more likely to swing from pride to humility in great wild waves? I dare say, I think they might just have those inklings. I pray God will help me choose humility. I pray to stay thirsty.

From Walking on Water, Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L'Engle:

Each time an unexpected discovery is made in the world of knowledge, it shakes the religious establishment of the day. Now, we are often taught that it is unfaithful to question traditional religious beliefs, but I believe we must question them continually - not God, not Christ, who are at the center of our lives as believers and creators - but what human beings say about God and about Christ; otherwise, like those of the church establishment of Galileo's day, we truly become God's frozen people. Galileo's discoveries did nothing whatsoever to change the nature of God; they threatened only man's rigid ideas of the nature of God. We must constantly be open to new revelation, which is another way of hearing God, with loving obedience. 

 Revelation. Listening. Humility. 

Remember-the root of the word humble and human is the same: humus: earth. We are dust. We are created; it is God who made us and not we ourselves. But we are made to be co-creators with our maker.

The great artists keep us from frozenness, from smugness, from thinking that the truth is in us, rather than in God, in Christ our Lord. They help us know that we are often closer to God in our doubts than in our certainties, that it is all right to be like the small child who constantly asks: Why? Why? Why? (L'Engle 1980)

We are working to keep our child like wonder.

 

Meet Jack.

 

Jack is a 15 week old (we think) kitten. He was found in the ditch near our piano teacher's house, and they were not going to be able to keep him. He literally walked up to our vehicle and found us. He purrs instantly the moment you pick him up. He lets you cradle him like a baby. He lets you wipe off his paws when he's been outside. (Seriously, if God ever had a cat for us, this is the one.) He's exhausted tonight, but within 4 hours of bringing him home, he was the boss. What dog? They already share the same water bowl and drink from it together. Did I mention, I will be vacuuming every day for the rest of my life? I guess I'm going to call that my cardio workout. Yep. He's a pocket full of sunshine in our spring, along with the full rainbow I saw today, and the four doves on my run. God speaks. Today. 

Lent in the Land of the Living

Image from www.stainedglassinc.com/

Lent is for those in the land of the living, to remember there is a living hope, among us.

Ash Wednesday has come and gone and we are sick and not very into Lent. It's hard to tell if we are grasping a spirit of repentance. Who's thinking of repentance? We just want to lay our weary heads back to rest. Valentines is here, pushing back February blues, and little boy hangs a sign to wake, and "remember it is Valentines!" Today, we will do our best to embrace, give, and receive love, but will it be a Lenten Love?

We have devotions and talk about how to take earthly distractions out of our lives to make space for heavenly gifts, but mostly we just want to sleep off sickness. We pray, "Let us begin Lent in a posture of listening, not listless indifference."

And all around me, like buds pushing their way up in early spring air, I see Lent blooming in lives as they go about daily living. Lenten people who shine Jesus, no matter the pain they are facing in our imperfect world. They serve healing in the form of food, both for the body and the spirit. Emergen-C for the inner and outer man. They seek to serve up wholeness. They feed all God's children, not just a select few. They feed their Lord. Because being sent out is as simple as serving a cup of water.

I used to think these Lenten people were glass is "half full" people, but now I know they are people who lean into their Lord. They are lenten listeners, leaning into a grace and abundance that has no limit. Leaning into Lent is living daily dependent on the Lord. Choosing to listen for my Lord in a land of loud voices. Choosing to create space for Him, when everything around me says, "create space for yourself."

And Sarah Bessey writes about Lent and a drop of water and I get it. Water. Living, giving water. We drink spring water and every drop of water we drink is pure grace. And we have drunk from the spring of bitter water and the spring of sweet water. There is a difference. He alone makes water sweet. He's knows the taste of bitter water and He still swallows it anyway. Am I willing to swallow what is bitter and trust His sacrifice to make it sweet?

In Oregon, we have liquid sunshine and we drink it up, drop by drop. In Lent, we have the opportunity to listen to our Lord, and drink Him up, drop by drop. Every drop we receive has the potential to brim up, over and out, and overflow into our thirsty land. Living water. Sweet water.

We will be praying about where to give a cup of water in the world this Lent, both locally and globally. Who do you need to give a cup of love to this Lent, or maybe just a cup of water?

And the little boy awakes and remembers it is Valentine's.