by Andy Wade
Lent is often thought of as a dark, introspective season. Voluntarily I give up, for a season, some part of my life to help me focus on “the journey”. Perhaps it’s chocolate, or coffee, or Facebook, or dining out. Multiple Lenten seasons I’ve participated in this way… and it’s been helpful. But this year I sensed a call in a different direction.
Going back to the roots of Lent, we discover that it was a season for new Christians to be intentionally discipled in preparation for baptism on Easter Sunday. For others it was a season to reflect and prepare to renew their baptismal vows. This season makes time for a serious look inside, facing our inner brokenness and changing our ways (in church lingo, repenting from sin).
This is also a season to seriously meditate on the journey of Jesus toward the cross – his complete abandonment to the plan and purposes of God, which ultimately led to his death on the cross. To ponder the weight of the world’s sin and brokenness that Jesus carried, my sin and brokenness that Jesus carried, to the cross should indeed be a deep and life-changing venture.
Some would argue that we no longer need to focus on this, that now it’s all about the resurrection and life, and to focus on the cross and sin and death is too negative and even demeans the point of Jesus’ resurrection. And yet we journey. If we’re honest with ourselves, we know that life is still broken and full of sin, even as the promise of new life and resurrection is held out to everyone who would receive it.
As I prepared my heart for this season of Lent, I found myself wrestling with what it’s really all about. So often I give up something or change some element of life for the season which does help my focus, but then I pick it back up… coffee, chocolate, Facebook… and enter the season of Easter feeling more spiritual – but not really changed.
So this year I began wondering how Lent could truly become a season of transformation. If Lent is a season to prepare for baptism or the renewal of my baptismal vows, what does that mean? If it’s all pointing to new life in Christ, shouldn’t my life be changed, not just reflected on? So I’ve kind of turned Lent inside out, looking more at what I’m challenged by Jesus to live into. It’s not just the resurrection, it’s all about new life that embraces the reign of God.
- How do I live into the shalom of God in ways that bring about healing, hope, justice, reconciliation, and love?
- Where am I already living into this new reality of God’s reign?
- Where am I resisting?
- What things in my life actually hinder me from leaping fully into the risky business of following Jesus?
- What areas of my life encourage me to live into radical discipleship, and how can I nurture those areas?
What I’m discovering is that I need to begin with the end in order to discover what I must give up… or nurture. The deep introspection and resulting repentance are not a bad thing, but they need to have purpose beyond the 40 days of Lent. In fact I would argue that cultivating a truly transformative Lenten practice actually develops in us a healthy life-long discipline that looks honestly at our brokenness and need for the healing of Jesus, while at the same time placing those acts of repentance into the larger purposes of God, not just for my own life but for the whole community.
So this Lenten season I’m anticipating great things. I want to be changed from the inside out. It’s not just a season of cleaning out the clutter in my life, a kind of spring cleaning, that I do year after year with very little change in my attitude and habits. This is a season which sets the tone for the year ahead as I face honestly the “weight and sin that clings so closely” (Rom. 12:1-2) for the purpose of living and loving more fully into the resurrection purposes of God in me and in the world.
What is Lent to you?
What are you doing this season of Lent to walk more fully into the purposes of God?
by Christine Sine.
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. (Hebrews 11:1, NIV)
How and when do we prepare for new life? That is the question ringing in my mind as I begin this journey of Lent. There is much preparation that must be done, some of it already well under way.
seeds sprout in darkness
Not surprisingly, the imagery that first appears in my mind is of a garden, planting seeds, getting ready for the new growth of spring. My first salad greens are already emerging under the grow lights and when I posted a photo a couple of weeks ago, one of my Southern hemisphere friends commented:
Spring is around the corner, as long as you take the right corner.
It is hard for people in the Southern hemisphere to think about resurrection when everything around them is dying. Yet in the garden preparation for the new life of spring has indeed begun there too.
A Time to Scatter Seeds
We tend to think of spring as the time for planting, but in nature, autumn is the real season of planting. This is the time of year when seeds are scattered, covered by the falling leaves and garden debris, preparing to being their journey towards new life.
This is also the season when deciduous trees set buds that contain next year’s leaves and flowers. They then go into dormancy over the winter, at least above ground. In some species the roots continue to grow, strengthening the tree as they search out water. Even what is above the surface is pruned and cut back in preparation for a new spurt of growth.
autumn seed
Spring – the Season of Surprise
Spring is not so much the season of planting, it is the season of surprise. I love to go out into the garden to see what is emerging – sometimes unexpected seeds that must be nurtured into full growth. Sometimes seeds that have been flown in and dropped by birds. I continue to prepare and enrich the soil. Growth begins in darkness, hidden but not passive. Seeds respond to the water, the nutrients, the life around them and even to the light that filters through the darkness.
The preparation of Lent seems to me to be a combination of autumn and spring preparation. The seed has been scattered, we prepare the soil, we hope for seeds to emerge and wait in anticipation for the coming of Christ’s new life.
What comes to mind as you prepare for this journey through Lent? What are the unseen things God has planted in your heart? How does your image reflect the preparation of Jesus for his death—a horrific event necessary to secure our salvation and essential for new life and resurrection?
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by Fran Pratt
God,
We revel in your expansive grace;
We bask in your boundless love;
We delight in the excess of your blessings to us.
As Christ turned water to wine at Cana,
So You are spreading out a bountiful feast for Your people.
We acknowledge that your kingdom is
always expanding
always welcoming
always inviting
always growing
always blessing
always filling.
We acknowledge that in Your presence there is always
a joyful song
a chorus of worship
a fountain of life.
We acknowledge that your attitude toward us is always
joyful celebration
unconditional love
wholehearted acceptance.
The universe is bursting, drunk with Your love.
Our hearts are plump, satisfied with Your love.
Our lives are filled up, ripe with Your blessing.
May we live our lives in the fullness of joy.
Amen
Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the Western Church. “Shrove” means to hear a confession, assign penance, and absolve from sin. Shrove Tuesday is a reminder that we are entering a season of penance.
It is also known as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras (which is simply French for Fat Tuesday). In Italy, Fat Tuesday is known as carnevale-goodbye to meat-from which we get our English word carnival. Traditionally people held one last rich feast, using up perishables like eggs, butter and milk before the fast of Lent began. Now in some places, like New Orleans, this has become a huge celebration that really has nothing to do with the beginning of Lent.
This last weekend I spent a lot of time getting myself ready for Lent. I de-cluttered my desk, re-organized my prayer gardens and wrote this Ash Wednesday prayer.
At the beginning of a new liturgical season this organizing of my special space has become an important practice for me and one that I would highly recommend to everyone. Interweaving spiritual symbols that speak to us of the liturgical season with objects that are meaningful in our daily lives is a powerful way to find renewed intimacy in our faith.
I love to combine spiritual symbols with images from the garden and then apply a little creativity that helps focus my spiritual practices each morning. Sometimes I wander around the house mulling over my chosen theme for the season, looking for objects that draw my attention. My little corner is always enhanced by familiar objects like photos or shells that remind me of past experiences, family and friends.
What Is Your Response?
Now I invite you to create your own sacred space for Lent. It doesn’t need to be a large space. Mine is just the corner of my desk.
Read through the post Seven Tips for Creating Sacred Space for Lent. Where would you like to conduct your spiritual observances this year? Sit in your space for a while and visualize what you would like to do. What religious symbols help you focus at this season? What other objects would enhance your space?
Add a Dose of Creativity
I love the stability that practicing the seasons of the church calendar gives to my faith, but I also love to mess with tradition and create new symbols that have special meaning for my own life. The freedom to be creative in this way and express who I am and who God has created me to be has brought new areas of healing and wholeness to me.
This year setting up my sacred space was a bit of a struggle. I didn’t want to let go of the mantra begin with gratitude, focus on hope, celebrate with joy, with which I have started each morning since the start of the year but I did want to embrace symbols that spoke specifically to me about the season of Lent, especially drawing on those we created for our Lenten guide Hungering for Life.
So I ended up with two gardens – one thriving, succulent garden that has seen me through the seasons of Advent and Epiphany and which will continue to focus me until after Easter, the other a new “garden” with just one plant – an air plant that will (hopefully) thrive and slowly flower as Easter draws close.
The really liberating thing was the creative exercise of arranging my gardens, painting my rocks and and making it very much my own space. This corner very definitely belongs to me and to God and I know it will be a place of special encounters, discovery and growth over the coming weeks. And that will probably result in the creation of new prayer poems that further enhance my experience.
What is Your Response?
Creating a place where we encounter God in an intimate and meaningful way is often a very intentional exercise. What creative gifts is God stirring within you to use as you prepare your sacred space for this season? How could you express these to enhance your space and make it a place of special encounter with God?
Watch the video below and allow it to stir your imagination as you consider how to create your own Lenten space
Note: During Lent I will take a break from writing Monday meditations. These will instead become Wednesday meditations. I will post on the appropriate words from Hungering for Life to kick off the new theme for the week. I hope that you will join us on this journey, post your own thoughts on the Mustard Seed Associates Facebook page and above draw closer to God and God’s world.
Finding the path by Mary Sayler
Genesis 29:20: “ Jacob worked for Rachel for seven years, but it seemed like a few days because he loved her,” CEB.
Prayer:
Lord God, I want to know
Your word on love, but
these first instances in the Bible
have to do with sacrifice.
That wasn’t what I had in mind!
I can see me praying for someone
to love me so much,
they’ll do almost anything for me,
but such sacrificial love –
as Your bride price for us in Christ –
is overwhelming!
Jacob worked hard in those fields
and had to take a lot of flak from Laban,
but like Your eternal love,
the years seemed like a day!
So, what are You saying, Lord –
that love is not fluffy but hard,
that we might have to put up with quirks,
flaws, and syndromes – or the distress
Jacob felt when he found himself
deceived and receiving
the wrong spouse?
Oh, help us, Loving Father,
to receive Your gift of love.
Help us to love other people to pieces
until each piece of hardship breaks
into faith-manageable prayer size,
given with thanksgiving and praise.
Thank You, God, for staying with us
and seeing us as beautiful,
beautiful in Your sight.
Thoughts: What sacrifice love makes! What sacrifice does God’s love call me to make – or not?
Lenten Rose
breaking through winter’s crust
head bowed
facing earth
fertile soil
from whence you sprang
humble beauty
calling us
to bow our heads
remembering
from dust
were we created
to dust
we shall return
— by Andy Wade —
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 10. We invite you to join with us as we “Hunger for Life“. I am looking forward to walking the journey with others here on Godspace as we share our experiences and ideas for a meaningful Lenten season. I hope you will join us.
Silence at Sunset photo Kirsty Williamson Lee
by Mark Votava
Sometimes I think about what will help me to have a conversion to see the sacredness of all of life where I no longer go back and forth from the dualities of my own making. Is there such a thing as coming in and out of God’s presence? I don’t think so!
So everything in life has to be sacred, even my struggles, my pain, my angst and discontentment. I have been practicing silence, solitude, and stillness for decades. These are some of the most transformative practices for me as I seek to live in the depths of who I am without all the noise that wants to define me in everyday life.
Silence, solitude, and stillness reveal my true self to me. I am free to dance, love, live, show compassion, gentleness, be courageous, and become honest where I am at. This is comforting to me that God has given me such practices so I can really listen to what is going on in me, in the world I find myself in. Silence, solitude, and stillness are some of the things that connect me to a gratitude that might be fleeting otherwise.
I have a total new awareness because I believe that God speaks to me in silence. But this speech is not in vocal, English words that I can hear as a friend might say to me, “come on over tonight.” No, God speaks to my soul in the deep interior intuitions of my being. It is more like intuitions of simplicity, love, compassion, gratitude that my soul is being moved toward greater understanding within me.
It is hard to explain, but it is truly a gift. I start to see the sacredness of all of life as I listen to these deep intuitions in my soul. This way of life can be scary if I am not prepared because I will start to see the sacredness of everything that might lead me to live a more simple life the way Jesus did. I might start to become present to the marginalized in the context I live in. Everything in me might start to unravel of what I thought I knew about God.
Silence, solitude, and stillness may lead me to give up my possessions that I think I need. They might lead me to give up my arrogance, power, and notions of “success” that I have created for myself. They might call me to die of everything that is of my ego. The true self in me might have a chance to come out and live through me.
Seeing the sacredness of all of life cannot happen within me if I do not practice silence, solitude and stillness. All great thinking and beautiful ways of life come from the solitude that is pursued as we step out of our addiction to status quo systems we are embedded in to reimagine something more authentic. We become not so controlled by the narratives of entertainment, consumerism, and the “pursuit of freedom” to do whatever we like according to our false self.
My own experience with seeing the sacredness of all of life comes to me all of the time if I am listening deeply. A lot of the time I do not listen to these contextual revelations because I am not prepared. The soil of my life is not the kind that can receive the beauty before me. But I am learning to listen deeply especially when I don’t want to and it is difficult.
Practicing silence, solitude, and stillness is leading me to an authentic way of love, humility, vulnerability, and honesty. I am learning that there is a sacredness to love in everyday life. Love is becoming the dominant theme of my spirituality as the sacredness of it is so mysterious. The deepest ground of my being is love and silence, solitude, and stillness fosters this way of being in me.
Silence, solitude, and stillness have become valuable to me. They so often are forgotten in our culture of speed, noise, entertainment, and success. They are the foundational soil for healthy community in our postmodern world. There is a sacredness of life that we are blinded to because silence, solitude, and stillness are not practiced very much.
This makes me sad as these practices could revolutionize our world today and connect us to our true selves where love is the ground of our being. Why is love so hard to embody in our lives? Maybe it is because we do not give attention to silence, solitude, and stillness.
If we practiced these things we just might have to recreate our identity as our false self will be exposed, our dishonesty will fall away, and we might be able to see the sacredness of all of life someday. May God help us in our dilemma to find the sacredness of all of life as we discover our true selves through silence, solitude, and stillness. This could be our path to love over the course of our lives.
What keeps you from silence, solitude, and stillness?
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Mark Votava is a contemplative activist, a core member of the Tacoma Catholic Worker, author of The Mystical Imagination: Seeing the Sacredness of All of Life and The Communal Imagination: Finding a Way to Share Life Together. He blogs regularly at markvotava.com about spirituality and community.
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