Last years leaves wither while waiting for Spring to arrive; so much like me this Lent, longing for Lent's revelations to transform me. What have I learned in this stripped season of waiting and struggle? That I am weak. I long to live wholly for God, but my own disordered attachments and affections ~my passions of pride and hurt, unresolved inner longings lead me astray. I cling to the old, the familiar, and find there is no new growth. No surprise there.
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17
The old plants are still in their pots, the old bush hangs limply over the pond, but I like structure~ even the form of frozen stems seems beautiful in the winter. Now is the time for new beginnings. I must go out and prune, rip up all that will not bear life and fruit in me. (seems this is what God does in Lent~ show us what is not life-giving). And as for the storms~ that is when the real recovery must begin. The wreckage caused by the storms in our lives- loss of loved ones, betrayals, traumas, misunderstandings, sheer weariness- even this is some kind of storm~ these require even more careful clearing out that we might make room for the new.
Jesus comes and says startling words:
"I have come that you might have life and life abundant."
John 10:10
What in your life doesn't look like life? It sounds silly, but it is true. Ask God to walk with you through the spring clean-up in your soul and to speak truth to you and make all things new.
Have you lost a loved one? Jesus says, "I AM the resurrection and the Life." This promise is to bring you hope.
Have you suffered a betrayal or misunderstanding and it has blinded you to the love of God? He says to you: "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do. I will not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16
Have you lived through trauma and feel trapped in the prison of it? God says to you: "I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places so that you may know I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." Isaiah 45:2-3
What old things are you clinging to when the new has already come?
"But behold, both a new soul, (for it was cleansed,) and a new body, and a new worship, and promises new, and covenant, and life, and table, and dress, and all things new absolutely...instead of circumcision, baptism; instead of the manna, the Lord's body; instead of water from a rock, blood from His side; instead of Moses' or Aaron's rod, the Cross; instead of the promised land, the kingdom of heaven; instead of a lamb without reason, a Spiritual Lamb. With these and such like things in His thought He said, "all things are new." But "all" these "things are of God," by Christ , and His free gift."
John Chrysostom Fourth Century
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