“H” is for Hope (March 2, 2012)

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…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness combined with our faith. we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “H” is for hope. First things first: hoping and wishing are two different things, though we tend to use the words interchangeably. “I hope it snows tomorrow” really means “I’m wishing for a snow day.” But the kind of hope we are talking about where following Christ is concerned is quite a bit bigger than simply “wishing.”

A wish is single, solitary thing. You wish for something to happen (or not happen). Hope, on the other hand, is the framework that supports the act of wishing. Hope is the expectation that the bounds of possibility are far wider than we can perceive. Hope is the act of trust taken out of the present and projected into the future.

The Outline of the Faith in the back of the Book of Common Prayer defines Christian hope in this way: “The Christian hope is to live with confidence in newness and fullness of life, and to await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God’s purpose for the world.” Confidence here is another word for trust. When we trust, we make ourselves vulnerable. But hope gives us the courage to keep on trusting. Hope does this by wrestling vulnerability into a little box on the corner of the shelf. When trust shines out in our lives undimmed by things like vulnerability, we can invite God to cultivate within us that expectation about the bounds of possibility. We limited humans might perceive boundaries. But hope tells us that in God, the boundaries are so much more expansive than our perception allows us to see.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all hope. Help me to trust you in the present so that I can rest assured in the hope that you fulfill all your promises. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“G” is for Grief (March 1, 2012)

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…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

When Mary arrived where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.” When Jesus saw her crying and the Jews who had come with her crying also, he was deeply disturbed and troubled. He asked, “Where have you laid him?” They replied, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to cry. The Jews said, “See how much he loved him!” (John 11:32-35; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “G” is for grief. First off, let me get this out there: no one likes grieving. Grieving is not something we choose to do. Grief happens whether we are ready for it or not, and there’s really no way outside heavy prescription drugs to control it or take the edge off it.

That being said, Charlie Brown is on to something whenever he says his catchphrase: “Good grief.” Grief, in a sense, is good. Grief happens after loss – whether the loss of a loved one or the end of a relationship or a change in what you thought the future would hold. Grief is our body and our spirit’s way of confirming to us that we, in the case of death, truly did love the person who is gone from our sight. Grief can sneak up behind us, catch us off guard, dissolve us into puddles of tears, and then give us the gift of knowing in the depths of our souls that the deceased really did matter to us.

Grief gives us a way to stay connected to the newly deceased while we move to the new normal that our lives will enter sometime after all the events surrounding the death. Grief is love’s tether to the other person. But as grief fades, the tether remains because the relationship did not die with the person. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ points to this reality, the reality that relationships do not die; rather, through the love of God, they only change. Grief is the incubator for the change in relationships as people pass life through death to new life.

Grief is a gift. It may not seem so at the time of piercing, screaming, shattering loss, but in the end, as Charlie Brown says, grief is good.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you infuse every relationship with your presence. Help me to recognize that the love I hold for people who have passed is not negated, but changed. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“F” is for Freedom (February 29, 2012)

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…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love. (Galatians 5:13; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “F” is for freedom. When you first think about “freedom,” I would hazard to guess that you think about it in its patriotic habitat. We talk about the United States of America being “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” We see bumper stickers that read, “Freedom isn’t free.” To Americans, “freedom” means something akin to “getting to do what I want.”

However, this definition is faulty. If everyone got to do what he or she wanted, we would reach a state of chaos pretty quickly. 17th century political scientist John Locke called this kind of absolute freedom the “state of nature”; in it, he argued, there really is no opportunity to exercise one’s freedom because of the constant need to protect oneself from other people’s exercise of their freedom. And so governments are instituted to protect rights. This paradoxically creates freedom by curtailing it.

In the same way, as followers of Christ, we are at our freest when we surrender our personal freedom to God; when we follow the path Christ walked; when we don’t do what we want but what we discern God wants of us. At first blush, this sounds far from freedom. But the paradox holds – the more we turn away from God and follow our own desires, the more we enslave ourselves to them. The more we allow God to lead us, the more freedom we find.

…Praying For…

Dear God, in your service is perfect freedom. Help me to recognize when I have enslaved myself to the false gods of this world so that I can turn to you, let go the shackles of sin, and be free. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“E” is for Eucharist (February 28, 2012)

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…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass there. They sat down, about five thousand of them. Then Jesus took the bread. When he had given thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there. He did the same with the fish, each getting as much as they wanted. (John 6:10-11; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “E” is for Eucharist. This word is used in several church contexts and can be a real barrier to entry for newcomers because it doesn’t really look like any other word they might recognize. We use it as a synonym for “Communion,” which is a word that has “union” in it and sort of looks like “common,” so newbies to the faith could get an inkling of what it means. But Eucharist? Yikes! The word just looks tricky.

So if you or someone you know has been wondering about this one, let me break it down to two simple English words: Eucharist means to “give thanks.” It is an ancient Greek word that was essentially ported into English unharmed by the ravages of time and language (which is why it looks a bit funny). When Jesus gives thanks before breaking and sharing the loaves and fishes with five thousand of his closest friends, he is Eucharist-ing.

With this simple meaning under our belts, we can look at how we use this word in church. First, we use it as a name for the service: the “Holy Eucharist,” which encompasses the parts of the service that surround both the Word and the table. We use it as the name of the sacrament of Holy Communion and for the prayers we pray when we consecrate the bread and wine. And we use it to name these two elements after the prayer when they have become for us Christ’s Body and Blood.

Because we use the word “Eucharist” in these several contexts, the definition of the word can get lost. But if we remember that the word means to “give thanks” then those contexts blossom with new meaning. The service as a whole becomes one we enter into with an attitude of thanksgiving. The prayer and the communion become our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. The elements of bread and wine become nourishment of God’s abundance, for which we give thanks.

Eucharist is not just an old word that is difficult to understand. It is the entry point to a new outlook on the world – one in which abundance trumps scarcity, generosity defeats greed, and thanksgiving wins the day.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of every good gift. Help me to nurture within myself a generous heart that is always on the lookout for blessing, for which I can give thanks. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

“D” is for Desert (February 27, 2012)

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…Opening To…

Now let us all with one accord, in company with ages past, keep vigil with our heavenly Lord in his temptation and his fast. (Gregory the Great, from The Hymnal 1982)

…Listening In…

The desert and the dry land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus. They will burst into bloom, and rejoice with joy and singing. (Isaiah 35:1-2; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “D” is for desert. The desert plays a big role in the Bible. Quite a bit of it is set there, though sometimes our translations use the word “wilderness” interchangeably with desert. The people of Israel wander in the desert for forty years between fleeing Egypt and arriving in the Promised Land. Jesus spends forty days in the desert after his baptism. There he fasts and resists the temptations of the devil.

Perhaps you live near a real desert – out in Arizona or California perhaps. I don’t, so when the Bible talks about the desert or wilderness, I place myself not in a literal desert but a figurative one. You see, the desert is all around us. We live in the desert. Sometimes through our actions and inactions, we contribute to expanding the desert. The desert exists anywhere that we feel isolated or afraid or tempted or lost. And let’s be honest – we are feeling at least one of those most of the time.

But just because we find ourselves in the desert much of the time does not make it simply a place of trial or a proving ground. God does not drop us in the desert just to test our endurance. We simply wander into the wilderness, and we get caught there because the wilderness is vast and tangled. Sometimes, the desert extends its pathless expanse as far as the eye can see.

But when the people of Israel got stuck there for all those years, they made a remarkable discovery. God was in the desert, too. God was everywhere they were, including the wilderness. God doesn’t stop at the desert’s edge. In fact, God can make the desert blossom.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you love all you create and never forsake me to lonely wandering. Help me to let you guide my feet in the pathless desert so that I can follow your lead as we make our way out together. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, nourished by your Spirit and willing to open up a larger space within for you to dwell.

Three Panels of the Story

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(Sermon for Sunday, February 26, 2012 || Lent 1B || Mark 1:9-15)

Every year on the First Sunday of Lent, we hear the story from the Gospel that tells about Jesus’ time in the wilderness. We hear this story on this particular Sunday because Jesus’ forty days off by himself, fasting in the arid austerity of the desert, are a model for our own forty-day Lenten journey. Last year, we heard Matthew’s telling of this tale – an eleven-verse treatment, complete with the devil’s three-pronged attack on a famished Jesus. The year before that, we heard Luke’s version, a full thirteen verses that recount the same story as Matthew does. Now, if Matthew and Luke spend on average a dozen verses on this story, then you might be wondering whether you nodded off during the Gospel reading from Mark a few moments ago and missed something. Where was the dialogue between the seductive devil and the stalwart Jesus? Where were the temptations: the bread from the rock, the leap from the temple, the view from the mountain? The answer is that I didn’t read them because they aren’t there. And I can assure you that you didn’t have time to nod off, no matter how sleepy you are.

Never one to spend his words frivolously, Mark gives us a grand total of two verses on Jesus’ time in the wilderness. “And the Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” That’s all Mark has to say on the subject. So, to keep you all from feeling gypped by a two-verse Gospel reading, the framers of our lectionary tacked on a few verses before and a few verses after Jesus’ time in the wilderness. And I’m so glad they did.

I’m glad because Mark’s rapid style progresses from scene to scene with such haste that the individual scenes cannot be isolated from one another. Indeed, I don’t think Mark intended for them ever to stand alone. Rather, taken together like the three panels of a comic strip, the three short scenes we read a few minutes ago tell the concise story of our life of faith.

Here’s the first panel: Mark draws Jesus emerging from the waters of the River Jordan. A dove alights on his outstretched arm. A text bubble points out the top of the frame and reads: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” This first panel in the story of our life of faith is “relationship.” Jesus hears God’s voice calling him “Son.” And not just son, but a son whom God loves. And not just a son God loves, but a son God loves, in whom God finds delight and joy. This relationship that God has with Jesus is the same relationship that God initiates with each one of us. Each of us is a son or daughter whom God loves and in whom God delights.

I know this can be hard to accept because most of the time we feel way too messy and unkempt for God to want to know us, let alone to delight in us. Our socks have holes in them. We haven’t vacuumed in a while. We ate that pretzel we found between the couch cushions. And that’s just the surface stuff. Why would God want to have anything to do with such untidy people?

But the wonderful thing about this first panel of our story is that Jesus hasn’t done anything yet. We’re less than a dozen verses into Mark’s account of the Gospel. Jesus hasn’t spoken a word or accomplished anything more remarkable than traveling from Nazareth to the Jordan and coming up for air after John dunked him under the water. Before Jesus has time to win or lose God’s favor, God has already staked out a place in their relationship. Likewise, God tossed God’s lot in with us long before we let God see our untidiness. And God’s not going to cut and run just because of our state of disrepair. God’s knowledge of us, love for us, and delight in us do not depend on our worthiness. In fact, they create our worthiness. Because God is in relationship with us, we are worthy to be in relationship with God. This is the first panel of our story.

In the second panel, Mark draws Jesus walking in the desert. At first glance, he seems to be alone. But then you notice the faint outline of an angelic hand holding one of Jesus’ hands as the other fends off Satan. This second panel in the story of our life of faith is “adversity.” Immediately after God affirms God’s relationship with Jesus, Jesus finds himself in the wilderness with the wild beasts and the temptations of Satan. I always assumed that Jesus had to travel quite far to get to the wilderness, but as I thought about this sermon, I changed my mind. I doubt he went very far at all. The wilderness is all around us. We live in the wilderness. Sometimes through our actions and inactions, we contribute to expanding the wilderness. The wilderness exists anywhere that we feel isolated or afraid or tempted or lost. And let’s be honest – we are feeling at least one of those most of the time.

But the adversity, which brings on these feelings, does not make the wilderness a trial or a proving ground. God does not drop us in the desert just to test our endurance. We simply wander into the wilderness, and we get caught there because the wilderness is vast and tangled. But remember the first panel of our story. The relationship God entered into on our behalf does not end at the desert’s edge. When the people of Israel wandered in the desert for forty years after fleeing Egypt, they made a remarkable discovery. Their God was in the desert, too. The adversity of the wilderness is the second panel of our story, but the relationship of the first panel carries through.

When we discover God’s constant presence even in the midst of the wilderness, we are ready to move to the third panel. Mark draws Jesus striding through Galilee proclaiming a message to everyone who will listen and to some who won’t. A text bubble points to Jesus, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” This third panel in the story of our life of faith is “proclamation.” After God has claimed a delight-filled relationship with the beloved Son, and after the Son has wandered in the wilderness, Jesus returns to Galilee with the words of the good news of God on his lips.

Our proclamation of this same good news happens whenever we act on the faith that comes from God’s delighted, loving relationship with us. Our proclamation happens when we come to know, love, and delight in all the messy and unkempt people around us. Our proclamation happens when, even in the midst of the tangled wilderness, we rely on God to show us the path to freedom.

Our life of faith moves from relationship through adversity to proclamation. But this life of faith is not linear; rather, this life is a spiral. As we grow in our faith, we delve more deeply into our side of our relationships with God. As we come ever closer to the God who is always close to us, we can endure greater adversity. And we can proclaim more continuously and more courageously the love and delight God has for all people.

As we enter this holy season of Lent, I invite you to take stock of where you are in this life of faith. Are you nurturing your relationship with God? Or are you wandering through the tangled wilderness of adversity? Or are you reveling in all the ways that you show forth God’s love? Or perhaps, you are living out a little of all three. Wherever you are in this story of the life of faith, trust that God began a relationship with you before you were worthy of one, that God is hacking away at the tangle of wilderness right alongside you, and that God is constantly speaking the words of the good news through your words and deeds into the hearts of those you meet along the way. Thanks be to God.

“C” is for Charisma (February 24, 2012)

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…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

As Jesus passed alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” Right away, they left their nets and followed him. After going a little further, he saw James and John, Zebedee’s sons, in their boat repairing the fishing nets. At that very moment he called them. They followed him, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired workers. (Mark 1:16-20; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “C” is for charisma. There are plenty of other good “C” words that I could have chosen; certainly, that are more “churchy” – well, “church,” for instance. Charisma isn’t really a word that’s used much when talking about following Jesus Christ. Perhaps, you’ve heard a preacher talk about Christ’s own charisma – how he attracted crowds, how people followed him seemingly on a whim.

However, you might see a problem with this use of “charisma.” Perhaps, you’ve heard talking heads on the news talk about the charisma of politicians – some just have it, others don’t. Often, politicians trade on this so-called charisma to make up for deficiencies in their political acumen or their knowledge of the world. In this sense “charisma” becomes the commodity they trade on to win office, and therefore it is seen as insubstantial, as part of a smoke and mirrors campaign to get elected. When we talk about Christ’s charisma winning the crowds, we are dangerously close to this kind of political showmanship.

But the word “charisma” is a really old word, and its longevity can save it from the political scene. “Charisma” comes from the Greek word charis (χαρις), which means “grace.” If we remember this root of our English word, then we remember the root of the “compelling attractiveness” that “charisma” has come to mean. The root is God’s grace – not smoke and mirrors, not showmanship, but the elegance and abundance of God’s freely given gifts stored inside a living being.

If Jesus had charisma, and I’m sure he did, then I bet it was this kind – the kind nourished by the grace of God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your gift of grace picks me up when I stumble and teaches me to dance to the rhythm of your love. Help me to move with this rhythm in my life. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

“B” is for Blessings (February 23, 2012)

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…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

The LORD said to Abram, “Leave your land, your family, and your father’s household for the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation and will bless you. I will make your name respected, and you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:1-2; context)

…Filling Up…

This Lent, we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “B” is for blessings. Grandmas tell us to count them. Football talk about them when they’ve won a big game. We use a different form of the word when someone sneezes. But what are “blessings?”

Well, it might be worth starting with what blessing is not. As my boss often says, “Don’t say you’re lucky, say you’re blessed.” Luck ascribes things happening to chance. Blessing ascribes them to God. People talk about good luck and bad luck. Chance favors those with good luck; not so much with the bad. But there’s no such thing as bad blessing. There are bad situations and tragedies but no bad blessings. There is blessing to be found in every situation and every tragedy. These blessings don’t necessarily minimize the pain and grief of the tragedy, but they do offer glimmers of hope. Sometimes the blessing is hidden until we are ready to see it, but the hope exists whether we notice it or not. The difference between luck and blessing is this hope: subscribe to a life of luck and hope rides on the flip of a coin or roll of dice, but subscribe to a life of blessing and hope rides on God.

There’s one more thing that separates luck from blessing, and that is permanence. Luck is fleeting, if it exists at all. But every blessing is permanent, no matter how quickly they may come or go. I urge you, then, to save them – remember them, write them down. Yesterday my blessings including playing music and embracing my wife. Each of these small blessings sinks down to fortify the bedrock of my soul. Remembering them helps me stay in relationship with the source of all blessing, and that is God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all blessing. Help me to seek out the blessing in all circumstances so that I may notice the glimmers of hope that exist in all situations. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

“A” is for Atonement (February 22, 2012)

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…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

All of these new things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and who gave us the ministry of reconciliation. In other words, God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them. He has trusted us with this message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19; context)

…Filling Up…

As we did last Lent on devotiONEighty, this Lent we are exploring our faith by running through the alphabet. Today, “A” is for atonement.

Atonement can be a scary word. It is often used in phrases such as “penal substitutionary atonement theory.” Atonement theory covers all the different descriptions of how Jesus Christ’s death on the cross affected creation. They run the gamut, as you might expect. The one I mentioned a few sentences ago says that Jesus suffered the penalty that God put on us for our sins, thereby making it so we didn’t have to suffer it ourselves.

Atonement theories can really color our worldviews because they describe how we view the most important event in history. If someone subscribes to “penal substitutionary atonement theory” then that person is more likely to have an image of God as judge, who has pronounced a guilty verdict over the human race.

The problem with atonement theories is that they are really just simple descriptions or metaphors for what is, at its core, an unexplainable and grace-filled act. By subscribing to one theory, we can miss the fullness of the beauty of the act itself. Christ’s act becomes part of a math equation.

Rather, at its heart, atonement is not about paying for sins. It is about renewing relationship. Whatever description we subscribe to about what happened on that cross and after, the relationship between God and God’s creation was changed in Christ’s act, was made closer somehow. For, in the end, “atonement” is a made up word. It’s a stitched together word. Look at it: “At One”-ment. That’s what atonement is really about.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your Son died on the cross and rose again and somehow changed the course of this world in the act. Help me to live my life as one who is at one with you, through Christ’s love. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.

Clean Hearts (February 21, 2012)

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…Opening To…

The glory of these forty days we celebrate with songs of praise; for Christ, through whom all things were made, himself has fasted and has prayed. (Hymn from the 6th century; trans. Maurice F. Bell)

…Listening In…

Create a clean heart for me, God; put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me! Please don’t throw me out of your presence; please don’t take your holy spirit away from me. Return the joy of your salvation to me and sustain me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10-12; context)

…Filling Up…

“Lent” is an old translation of the Latin word quadragesima, which simply means “forty days.” Forty days is a significant period of time in the Bible: Noah, Moses, and Elijah all had forty days of something –flooding, fasting, sitting around with God on the mountaintop. Jesus spent forty days in the desert, during which Satan tempted him. Beginning tomorrow (on the fast the church names “Ash Wednesday”) Lent continues until the day before Easter. Historically, the season of Lent was the period of time that people used to prepare for baptism, which took place at the Great Vigil of Easter on Easter Eve.

During these forty days that bring us to Easter, we examine our lives and discern how attuned to God’s movement we are. We pray for God to create in us clean hearts and renew right spirits within us, as Psalm 51 says. We rededicate ourselves to following Christ and wonder how last year’s dedication faded away. We slow down and turn our thoughts inward. How have my actions and inactions contributed to the brokenness in the world? To what have I enslaved myself? Where is my joy and freedom? Do I really want to follow Christ?

When we enter this period of self-reflection, when we honestly answer questions such as these, it often becomes apparent just how skin deep and results-oriented we’ve become. The season of Lent helps us see the error in statements such as “It’s only cheating if you get caught” and “The ends justify the means.” Living a full life – not a half-life of results only – means valuing the moral fortitude that counters wanton opportunism and caring about how things are accomplished, not just that they are. Observing Lent means taking a hard look at ourselves and borrowing enough strength from God to be capable of seeing those festering things that we usually ignore. Then we borrow enough faith from God to know that God will help us change and will reawaken within us those faculties of hope and love that have long lay dormant.

I invite you to turn your gaze inward during this season of Lent and discover the true joy that comes from a full life lived in the love of God.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all joy throughout your creation. Help me to live my life fully in your love so that I may follow you throughout my journey, meeting you all along the way to the destination. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, glad that you have given me the strength and the will to reflect on my journey with you.