FreerangeFriday: Crossing the Threshold in the Wilderness

By Lilly Lewin

We are crossing the threshold into the second half of Lent and into the second year of the pandemic. Crossing into a new place we have never been before.

I am writing this post on March 11, 2021. It was a year ago today in America we realized that the pandemic was real. It was on March 11th, that actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced that they had Covid19. It was on this day last year that the National Basketball Association suspended all games until further notice. Those two things, even more than the World Health Organization’s announcement that we were officially in a global pandemic, got our attention. Everyone started hoarding toilet paper and clorox wipes/disinfectant. It’s been a very long year!

We are all crossing the threshold into year two and carrying with us the loss, fatigue, and traumas of the last year.

We all need to take time to process this past year, and all it’s ups and downs. One way to do that is to look back through your phone and your calendar. What do you notice? What does the Holy Spirit show you about your last year?

As we cross the threshold into this next season, some people have had the gift of the vaccination, and all the hope that it brings. Some of us are still waiting our turn. Some of us feel like the waiting is going to last forever! Most of us are just exhausted by everything! School and work online, battles over masks, political division, etc. Here in USA, especially in the South, things are opening faster than I wish they would because I really do not want to go backwards! I really want to protect people who are vulnerable, and selfishly, I really want use my passport again someday soon!

What does the Road ahead look like for you?

Here’s a quote from Bilbo Baggins in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.

What does it look like for you to cross into the second year of the pandemic?

Use the doorways to consider where you are on your journey today…. Look at each photograph and consider the invitation to leave and cross the threshold into this next season with Jesus.

Closed Door

Looking through the Door

Door way open to the Cross and Suffering

OPEN DOOR to New Life

Use the doorways to consider where you are on your journey today.

Where you are on your journey with Jesus as we head toward Easter? Are doors feeling closed? Or, do they feel open? Are you seeing life and light outside the doorstep? Are you feeling closer to Jesus? Or, has life and all its complexities slowed down your journey and your desire to draw closer to Jesus during this Lenten Season?

READ:

Joshua 3 and Joshua 4

In Joshua 3 and 4, the children of Israel are finally making it into the Promised Land after wandering in the desert for forty years. They are crossing another threshold, the Jordan River and going into a land where everything is new once again! They are going to have to be different and follow God in a new place and in a different way. In this passage, they must follow the Ark and social distance and see the miracle of God of parting the Jordan.

Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. Joshua 3:4

In Joshua 4, they are instructed to remove 12 large stones from the place where the Ark stood in the middle of the Jordan and then build a tower of stones where they camp in the new land. These stones/rocks are to be a reminder of all God has done for them! A way to remember that God has taken them across the threshold of the river on DRY GROUND.

Some of us cross rivers everyday to get to work or to the other side of town for errands. Some of us cross bodies of water by bridges and ferry boats to visit friends or get to work when we are able. Not everyone has to cross a river or journey over a body of water, but we all go out the door each day, even if it’s just to walk the dog or take out the rubbish/trash. What does the world look like outside your door these days? Is it feeling like a new land of promise, or a battle ground of uncertainty?

We are crossing the threshold into the second half of Lent. Are you ready to head towards Easter or are you still stuck on the far side of the Jordan? Maybe like me, you haven’t gotten very far in your Lenten practices. Or maybe you haven’t even started. Know you are not behind. While people today participate in a 40 day season of Lent, originally Lent was only the days of Holy Week right before Easter. You have lots of time. Talk to Jesus about where you are. Look back at the door photos above and really consider the invitation you have to cross the threshold and go out the door towards Easter and all the Hope it brings.

You still have time to follow Jesus to Jerusalem and you have time to fall more in love with Him along the way!

TAKE TIME FOR HOPE:

• Take a walk and look for signs of hope in your neighborhood or along the way you walk.
• Journal about where you are finding hope in these Lenten days and even in these days of Pandemic.
• Create a collage about what HOPE looks like to you.
• Pray the digital Stations of the Cross

©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com

Gift of Wonder, Breath, and Celtic prayer cards are all on sale as we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day next week!

Take advantage of this sale now through March 17th.