A time of reflection

Ash Wednesday began the season of Lent in the church. It is a time of penitence (asking forgiveness), a time to reflect on what things we have not done, as our confession say. It is a time when you can give up something — candy, food, not praying, meat. It is a time we can add a new spiritual practice into our lives — praying, reading, art, taking a breath, being intentional with our time and careful with our words.

Joseph

Lent is a way to prepare ourselves for Easter. Just as the disciples had many warnings, signs, things Jesus said about what was going to happen to him, we just don’t seem to take in or understand the full scope of it. Even today we don’t wait for anything. For some it is Easter already, for us it is not yet.

We set out into the wilderness of our souls and expect to find Jesus there. We must all make this journey into the wilderness of our lives, those times when we are broken and cannot feel any connection to our faith. The times when we grieve for the loss of our loved ones. Those times when we are alone because we have lost income, or friends, or a spouse through divorce. This is what the season of Lent does for us.

We are reminded we don’t get through these times alone, we have Jesus being a patient consoler beside us. Ready to show us, if we take the time and intention, where he is and how we have learned and grown through the wilderness. Just as the patriarchs of the faith suffered with death of loved ones, barrenness, and loss of faith we too can come through our wilderness wrestling’s and find God in the midst.

So think of these 40 days as a challenge, or a growth, or a time of setting up an intentional walk with Jesus. Follow in his ways with his disciples, pick a gospel and read it from where Jesus calls them to when he dies. Take up one of the Old Testament desert fathers or mothers and see their struggles with walking in the way God was leading them. Or take up one of the prophets who talks about Israel’s struggle with keeping a faith in a strange land and among a different people. It will enlighten your walk to Easter and you just may learn what the full celebration of Easter is all about.

---

The Rev. Annette Joseph is priest at Holy Cross Episcopal, Poplar Bluff and St. Paul’s in Sikeston, Mo. She is the mother of five and blogs daily at http://arjoseph.blogspot.com/.