Tomorrow is the beginning of the season of Lent for 2019.
Wednesday morning, I will stand to receive the ashes. The moment will remind me of my time in England when I received the ashes in the shape of a dark cross etched across my forehead as a boy's chorus chanted prayers in the little stone chapel where I stood. While we receive this symbol corporately as the Body of Christ, it intimately marks the beginning of my own season of personal humility and repentance, thankful for what God has wrought in my life.
2019 brings new season, a new path, a new beginning in many ways. Last year I bought my first house. It is a precious property on the Inlet and I each morning I am greeted by sparkling water and the call of wild geese (and the sound of my neighbor's sweet Doberman, barking at them at the top of her lungs.) But more than the water and sun, and the endless opportunities to raise flowers and food, I find I finally feel that I am home.
I am preparing my heart for Lent. It is my favorite time of the year. My heart is hungry for God. I know He will speak.
Wednesday morning, I will stand to receive the ashes. The moment will remind me of my time in England when I received the ashes in the shape of a dark cross etched across my forehead as a boy's chorus chanted prayers in the little stone chapel where I stood. While we receive this symbol corporately as the Body of Christ, it intimately marks the beginning of my own season of personal humility and repentance, thankful for what God has wrought in my life.
2019 brings new season, a new path, a new beginning in many ways. Last year I bought my first house. It is a precious property on the Inlet and I each morning I am greeted by sparkling water and the call of wild geese (and the sound of my neighbor's sweet Doberman, barking at them at the top of her lungs.) But more than the water and sun, and the endless opportunities to raise flowers and food, I find I finally feel that I am home.
I am preparing my heart for Lent. It is my favorite time of the year. My heart is hungry for God. I know He will speak.
This year, my hands are open. I'm returning to the basics: Nouwen, Rich Mullins, U2, and praying the scriptures; because sometimes you need to preach to yourself, and sometimes you just need to be silent to hear Truth.
I believe this year there will be a lot of both. If Merton is right, then I feel somehow the hard journey on my seven-story mountain has brought me to a new path.
Love can be experienced in real ways through the care and affection of others, the touch of God through the many small miracles day by day, and the power of the scriptures. I have come to realize that when I am the most lost and feeling far from Him, the Presence of God presses in to me in a way that defies description. He disappears in all the usual ways, but becomes present in a way that is completely "Other." He becomes completely "unexpected."
This year, I seek the "Other."
Love can be experienced in real ways through the care and affection of others, the touch of God through the many small miracles day by day, and the power of the scriptures. I have come to realize that when I am the most lost and feeling far from Him, the Presence of God presses in to me in a way that defies description. He disappears in all the usual ways, but becomes present in a way that is completely "Other." He becomes completely "unexpected."
This year, I seek the "Other."
I see beneath my feet a million grains of sand and a sandy path that leads to a place I do not know and an adventure I cannot anticipate. A little scary, a little thrilling. And I am ready for the "next."
Moments ago Gilda and I were headed home from a burger date. We noted a house of faith marking Ash Wednesday. I realized how the season was approaching and I had to ask the question . . . What's lenten season? This alerted me to why my heart was becoming so quiet the last few days.
ReplyDeleteYour post Tess encourages me to draw near intentionally the next 40 days. For certainly He is speaking . . . He is speaking a new season.
Sis, thanks for your choosing to be transparent and creating atmospheric conditions that release unconditional love. Repentance is becoming a familiar intersection . . . always presenting green - yellow - red options. I am attempting to learn to stop on red and not roll through the intersection. True repentance needs a lingering moment to have its work be completed.
Favor to you sis . . . thanks for the demonstration of Kingdom in the earth as it is in heaven.
Ron