LENT'S SURPRISING ORIENTATION

Last weekend we slogged through the city streets of Chicago while visiting our son and celebrating his life. It was a joy to see him but a chore to move through the city! My feet were frozen. Of course I had boots on, but not the trudging kind, I had the pretty tall black ones that look gorgeous when walking on a clear, warm, dry day! Maybe this is a key to "how we do Lent." Do we recognize that Lent is hard work, like moving through a frozen tundra that was once a sidewalk, yet it is also a joyful walk with our Creator towards the Easter feast to come? Perhaps Lent is about realizing the path we may be on was never the one intended for God's beloved, that there are things in our life and path (like snow!) that should be removed to make traveling a bit less burdensome.

Ever feel that you didn't want to enter the Lenten journey? It seems sacrilegious to say and yet, we drag our feet plodding through the mountains of demands on our soul, like a weary traveler who signs up for one more trek through the desert of Lent.

When we realize that our feet are meant to walk in God's ways and not the world's, our Lenten journey makes more sense. We can be enamored by the world and constantly find ourselves pulled by it. Our whole lives swing outward, as if on a rusty, worn out hinge: relating to the world, in the world and for worldly gain, prestige and power. Our souls are meant to be lifted up so that we find a new way of seeing the path ahead. Are long we longing for something higher? Or Someone other?

"Lift up your heads, O you gates;

 be lifted up, you ancient doors,

 that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory? 

The Lord, strong and mighty; 

the Lord, mighty in battle. 

Lift up your heads, O you gates; 

lift them up, you ancient doors, 

that the King of glory may come in. 

Who is He, this King of glory?

 The Lord Almighty- 

He is the King of glory." 

Psalm 24:7-10 

Could the Lenten fast, giving and prayer be a way to purposefully lift up our souls and allow the King of glory to enter, to woo us from the world we live in and bring us to His Kingdom? Our habits and what we indulge often keeps our souls frozen in worldly ways, not allowing the "gates of our soul" to be lifted up. We aren't entering heaven's gates this moment, but we could live as though Heaven's King has touched our hearts now with the fire of His love.

May the warmth of God's love and the power of His grace free us to follow Him this Lenten season.

Medicine from Sacred Scriptures:

"Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord." 

Isaiah 2:5

JOY'S SURPRISING TIE

I grabbed a quick cuppa early yesterday morning with a dear friend; at times we don't see eye to eye so conversation was filled with deep respect, opposite points of view and yet, she won me over! I could have left with a difference of opinion, but it was my opportunity to look at my stance and shift, move, bend and bow to a bigger heart and a greater cause than my own. Her immense love for her family and others deeply touched my heart and changed my mind. How funny. It wasn't some big political debate, though it could have been, it was something far closer to home: how to love and live with those who differ from us. Ah, what love could teach us if we would sit at her feet.

 "Love is patient and kind, it is not self seeking," 1 Cor. 13:4

We know everyone needs love, from the tiniest babe who can't thrive without human touch, to the oldest among us who needs others to come alongside their loneliness and bring meaning to their days. Love for others fuels our journey as nothing else can. It makes us less selfish and self-centered and it builds up the world. And the call to love is not just for family and friends, for the victim and the disenfranchised, it is for our enemy as well. This is the tough stuff. How to love those who disagree with us, hurt us, and say all manner of evil things against us? 

"Love keeps no record of wrongs," 1 Cor. 13:5

Morning tea reminded me to see another point of view and let the joy of being together tether me to a love that "always protects, always trusts and always hopes, and always perseveres. Love never fails," 1 Cor. 13:7, 8. Love protects the integrity of another, trusts in the power of love, and hopes in One who never fails.  Knowing we are deeply loved unleashes a joy unspeakable. 

Take time in your Heavenly Father's presence to know His love and allow this love change how you see yourself and others. May this encounter touch your heart and bring you joy, and may this joy and love you find be reflected in a world that desperately needs it. It's a simple as a cup of tea, being present to God in prayer and listening to what He has to say. You might be surprised.

Will you let love ground you and joy rise in you?

Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, 

that we should be called the children of God! 

And that is what we are."

1 John 3:1