Welcome to Lent

The word Lent comes from the Old English word lenctin – which means to lengthen, referring to the lengthening of days in springtime for the Northern Hemisphere. That in the cold and darkened season of winter, the time of spring and new life approaches.

A time of hopeful and somber reflection on Jesus and his passion (suffering). A time of self-denial and restraint to sort of toughen and train the soul (hence Mardi Gras – Fat Tuesday, a final blowout before the Lenten discipline begins).

For some, Lent has been trivialized by giving up chocolate or, if you’re a child, spinach.

But Lent is neither about giving up things, nor setting Lenten Resolutions to live better and kindlier lives (although that’s always a good idea). Lent is NOT about doing or not doing; it’s really two things that occur in the deeps of the human spirit:
1. Thoughtful introspection about the awful reality of sin – the relentless self-interest that drives so much of life for all of us.
2. And contemplation about Jesus, the Way he chose via the cross and his invitation to take up our cross and follow him.

There’s nothing easy about any of this, but this is the stuff of spiritual health:
- Humility in the face of our sin and complicity in the suffering of the world.
- Sorrow for the state of affairs we humans have crafted.
- Confession: LORD have mercy!
- A heart broken by God.
- So that God can reassemble our hearts in the image of Christ.

Lent is never easy, but it’s vital to the health of the soul!

May God grant to us all a firm and faithful encounter with the Season of Lent!

An Open Door

“It turned out to be the opening of a door.”

I read that a few days ago in a Frederick Buechner piece, and it’s been rolling around in my mind ever since.

I’m sure I’ve walked by or around a good many open doors – I either didn’t recognize them for what they were, or I was just too preoccupied to pay attention … or maybe the open door felt too strange for me.

Yet I know of open doors that I’ve walked through. We’ve all those good moments when we’ve said, “Let’s do it!”

I’m not sure we ever fully know what the next door will look like … when Buechner wrote that phrase, it was in hindsight, and most of the open doors of our life are identified in retrospect.

I think God has a hand in all of this.

God guides us, even as we make our decisions and do our best, or maybe even do our worst, or mostly, somewhere in between.

A part of knowing God is knowing God’s kindness and love at work in all things.

It’s not ALL up to you and me! God is a key player in the game.

So, pay attention today, but don’t be too anxious about finding your next door. You are likely to walk through it and not even know it, and God is beside you, though you may not recognize God – who knows, God may appear to you in the guise of a friend, an internet article, or a thought out of the blue.

“It turned out to be the opening of a door.”

A Simple Celebration of Life

Yesterday, I had lunch with a UCLA professor at the Faculty Center, and we had a delight time. He’s a fascinating man, with a 40-year teaching career and no end in sight. He teaches French literature and over the years has developed some theories about the origin of language called “generative anthropology” … which I will NOT try to explain, since it’s all very new to me.

But the purpose of this little note is the simple celebration of life – as we said yesterday, so many good and decent folk trying their levelheaded best to transcend the dark side and make something of themselves, and help a few others along the way.

As you read these words today, you’ve already made any number of decisions about the day, the quality of your life, and those you love.

Think of the LORD's Prayer today as a simple paradigm of basic living: Our Father, who art in heaven  (say the entire prayer before reading on) …
ü     A thought about God – that God is good, and I’m better for opening that part of my life.

ü     A thought about a better world – governed not by greed and the lust for power, but governed by grace and compassion. And I'm a part of that project!

ü     A thought about provisioning – that God will provide what I need, and sometimes, even what I want.

ü     A thought about forgiveness – primarily to set me free from the bitter hold of old memories; clear the decks, so to speak, so I can get on with my life.

ü     A thought about making it through the worst of times – how many hard times I've come through in my days, and I'll make it the rest of the way.

ü     A thought that in the end, it all belongs to God, including me and those I love.

A simple celebration of life! And who knows what fascinating people you’ll meet today. Pay attention to God, and pay attention to everyone around you.

The Gettysburg Address

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS:


Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.

We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.

The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

The Gettysburg Address

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS:


Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in
a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot
dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated
it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this
nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people shall
not perish from the earth.