STAIRS OF LENT

My steps, my stairs, these have troubled me in the last few hours. I realize the very fact that I want to climb, to ascend, to make my way is the very reason Lent may be such a struggle for me. "Lent is not a struggle where we suffer and afflict ourselves, it is finding our true identity."

Here is the rub, I want to work and strive; familiar climbing and falling are more comfortable than the truth that at any time I can ask for mercy. Mercy restores, mercy lifts me up from bottom step of my longing and efforts and carries me in His arms. It would seem that rising would simply mean trusting God's mercy to carry me, but it takes humility to cease striving.

The view He offers is stunning, the identity He holds is priceless: beloved child of God. He asks me to accept that I am His dear child and act accordingly. Choosing to remain a child when fully grown is challenging at best; I purposefully remain in Him and His love, trusting His care. I am loved and out of this love, action, even pious religious action, flows; identity does not flow backward. I humble myself before Him, sitting on the lowest step of the long stair crying and call out His Name.

I become a little bird in His hands, He holds me gently and begins to tell me who I truly am. This is Lent, drawing close to God as things are stripped away and being carried by Him to His heart. His creation, the waves crashing, the snow pounding, the rain lashing, all these know their place in this world and I am only now discovering mine.

We are called children of God, that is what we really are.

Medicine from Sacred Scripture:

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known." 1 John 3:1- 2