“The Spirit immediately drove Jesus out 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” Mark
1: 12-13.
“Self-scrutiny is part of Lent’s process, but we do not observe Lent
for the sake of self-scrutiny alone. To
sit too long with the guilt and shame of our misdeeds would, in fact, go
against the gospel message. Christ’s
message is one of new life and forgiveness…”
I wrote a blog post a few years ago titled “What Is Wrong
With Me”. It focused on how I had seemed
to slip into a spiritual desert, and struggled to get out of it. I hadn’t lost my faith, I just was in a
malaise, a down period, and I just couldn’t break out of it. Unfortunately, it took the death of one of my
students to snap me out of it. I wrote
about that transformation in a follow-up blog post titled, “Out of the Desert”.
The first chapter of “A Clearing Season” is titled Exploring
the Wilderness. It discusses the fact
that we need to explore situations that make us uncomfortable, To fully experience the Lenten experience, we
must take ourselves to difficult places and see things that we really don’t
want to see. As the quote above notes
though, we can’t get stuck there, we have to move on, we have to experience new
life and forgiveness.
As I’ve noted, I do get stuck there sometimes, and I need to
figure out how to experience the wilderness, or desert, depending on your
choice of metaphors, but move on to new life and forgiveness. As I noted last week, my focus is to be much
more intentional about my faith, to experience Lent, to embrace this, to keep
my eyes open and to keep my eyes on God.
As I finish my first week of Lent, I’d like to move past the
“wild beasts” I’ve encountered, and I have to delight in some of the angels
that I was able to experience along the way.
Part of this is due to my heightened sense of trying to truly experience
Lent and embrace it, I’m sure, but I’m thankful for:
- “Keep Your Eyes on Me” – As I would sit on planes, taking off or landing, I’d let my mind wander to hearing Faith Hill singing that line over and over again. No disrespect to Tim McGraw, but ever since I heard Faith Hill sing “Breathe”, I’ve been in love with her voice.
- “Break Every Chain” – As I was going through customs in Sao Paolo, Brazil, I heard faintly this sweet voice over the sound system, singing “There’s a power in the name of Jesus to break every chain, break every chain, break every chain”. I had never heard this version before, I have the Will Reagan version, but I’m going to have to try to find it. What a wonderful way to start the journey.
- Clinging Cross Ministry – I gave out my first Clinging Cross for Lent. I chose a wonderful young lady who is starting a new journey at work with us. She is moving from a division to corporate, a change I am very familiar with, and know how hard it can be. The good news is that she is an incredible person, and I’m sure she will flourish in her new opportunity. But we can all use encouragement along the way.
- Clinging Cross Part 2 – When I posted my blog post last week on Facebook, I inadvertently had posted a picture of my Clinging Cross. Sometimes I’m not the most technically savvy person. It was a very fortuitous error to make because several of the people who I had given Clinging Crosses to over the years made comments about their Clinging Crosses.
- Chris Henry’s Sermon – On my flight from Sao Paolo to Mexico City, I was able to read Chris’ sermon from Sunday that I had missed since I was traveling, “A Clearing Season: Entering the Wilderness”. It was outstanding, of course, but there was a beautiful story toward the end of the sermon that brought me to tears. While I wish I could have been in church to hear it, I was thankful I had the opportunity to read it on my trip. It made a very painful, long flight much more bearable.
I enjoy your blog :)
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