Silent Saturday

Can you imagine how Jesus' followers must have felt on this day? For them it was the Sabbath. A day that was supposed to be holy for the, was dark and depressing. It certainly wasn't a day of celebration.

And can you imagine how hard it must have been to try and worship on that day? They would have heard some of the Scriptures read. They would have tried to offer prayers to Jehovah. But most likely they felt totally abandoned by Him.

Perhaps the next time I feel like God has left me I will think about Silent Saturday and remember that from my limited perspective, I have no idea what God is up to!!

Silent Blessings

Silent Saturday

Can you imagine how Jesus' followers must have felt on this day? For them it was the Sabbath. A day that was supposed to be holy for the, was dark and depressing. It certainly wasn't a day of celebration.

And can you imagine how hard it must have been to try and worship on that day? They would have heard some of the Scriptures read. They would have tried to offer prayers to Jehovah. But most likely they felt totally abandoned by Him.

Perhaps the next time I feel like God has left me I will think about Silent Saturday and remember that from my limited perspective, I have no idea what God is up to!!

Silent Blessings

"Good" Friday

I understand why this day is called "Good" Friday. I understand the power of the sacrifice Christ made for us. I realize that unless he went to the cross, I could not experience forgiveness and grace.

I just have a hard time calling it good.

I think it has to do with my ongoing practice of Lent for the last several years. Having spent the past 40 days (almost) in discipline and thinking about the mess I am in when left to my own, it causes me to mourn and weep at the incredible sacrifice He made for me. To think that he was still willing to enter in to all that suffering, even though he knows how messed up I really am, it causes my heart to break.

So I get it. I understand the reality of why this day is so good, it just breaks my heart in the process.

Bad Friday Blessings

"Good" Friday

I understand why this day is called "Good" Friday. I understand the power of the sacrifice Christ made for us. I realize that unless he went to the cross, I could not experience forgiveness and grace.

I just have a hard time calling it good.

I think it has to do with my ongoing practice of Lent for the last several years. Having spent the past 40 days (almost) in discipline and thinking about the mess I am in when left to my own, it causes me to mourn and weep at the incredible sacrifice He made for me. To think that he was still willing to enter in to all that suffering, even though he knows how messed up I really am, it causes my heart to break.

So I get it. I understand the reality of why this day is so good, it just breaks my heart in the process.

Bad Friday Blessings

Darkness

Today I am struck with the ideas of darkness.

I read this morning about the darkness that comes from our world. I had a friend share about a very dark day in his life yesterday. I was confronted by the darkness of our world that tries to pull us in. I spoke with a woman who was experiencing darkness in her life because of the choices of someone else.

Lent is a season that provides us an opportunity to be very real and honest about the darkness of our lives. It may be day time here right now, but for all of us, whether the sun is out or not, we live in a world of darkness. It surrounds us and permeates many facets of our lives.

Our willingness to be very real and honest with God about the darkness is actually an opportunity to allow Him to shine His light of truth into our darkness. When we bring it before Him, it is immediately overwhelmed by His light. The darkness is pushed back by the Light. We may not be able to ever completely remove ourselves from the darkness in our world, but if we stay close enough to Jesus, we will be able to see well enough to navigate through it!

Lenten Blessings

Trembling

"Trembling, they said to each other, 'What has God done to us?'" Genesis 42:28c

These words were spoken by Joseph's brothers on their way back home from their first visit to Egypt. They opened their sacks of grain and found their money back in the top of their bags.

What a great thought for Lent! As we come before God in humility and repentance, and we recognize our desperate condition before Him, we cry out.

"Trembling, they said to each other, 'What has God done to us?'"

Lenten Blessings

Lenten Hope

So as I am reading todays Lent readings from the lectionary earlier this morning and have this strange realization come over me - hope is rising within me! Hope. Really?!

This is Lent. This is not a season of hope. Lent is about sorrow, repentance, recognition of our sinfulness. Hope? I don't think so.

Advent is the season of hope. A time to look forward, to anticipate what's coming, to think about all the hope that is coming in Messiah. Big broad, sweeping strokes of hope, that Advent!

So what is this thin, ray of hope that seems to be forcing it's way into the front of my heart and mind?

And then I realize there is another word that seems to be emerging beside this hope - only. Several of the texts convey the idea that our "only hope"is in God. "We have no other hope, but You." That's when it occurs to me, when we are willing to recognize our unworthiness before God, when we are repentant and willing to admit our utter sinfulness before the Lord, we come to realize that our only hope is in Him. The only hope we have for our condition of utter contempt is to place our lives in the hands of God and His son hanging on a cross.

May Lenten hope rise!

Lenten Blessings

Lenten Relationship

As I read through several texts today, I was struck by God's great desire for relationship with us. He doesn't want sacrifice or discipline just for their sake alone. His desire is that through sacrifice and discipline we would continue to engage in authentic relationship with Him (read Psalm 50 as an example).

During this season of Lent I typically engage in various spiritual disciplines, including writing in this blog. But I wonder, is my relationship more with these disciplines, or do they drive me deeper into relationship with the One who invites me to the disciplines? I realize there are times when we just muscle our way through the spiritual disciplines, after all, that's why they are called disciplines! But I hope I never forget that these are simply tools that the Spirit can use in my life to help me relate to the Lord of all life.

Lord, thank you for using the disciplines of Lent to help me live in covenant relationship with You.

Lenten Blessings

Lenten Suffering

So I find myself at the ER with some friends tonight. It seems like an almost fitting end to a bizarre day.

This morning I spent some time with another friend whose mom had been in a pretty serious car accident. She lives in another town, so for a few hours he didn't know what was happening. This afternoon I visited three people from our congregation who have recently experienced time in the hospital, or were still there. Now I am sitting in the waiting room while my other friends are in the back with their baby.

As I sit here and look around at all the other sick people in here waiting to be seen, I am reminded of a principle of ministry I learned a long time ago - sometimes the greatest thing we can do is simply be with people. We can offer them our prayers, and maybe some words of encouragement, but what we really offer them is our friendship and the Presence of Christ among us.

And there is the beauty of Lent. We use this season to remember that Christ came to our world to become one of us and to identify with our suffering, our pain, our anguish. His willingness to come and experience life like us, in turn allows Him the privilege of entering into our suffering with us. He meets us in the midst of our suffering and offers us the ministry of His Presence.

Lenten Blessings

Men of God

On Sunday mornings, I come to the church early to unlock everything, turn on the lights, and make sure the heat/air is on. Most Sundays I am out of the house and at the church before any of the rest of my family is out of bed.

Last night Shaw told me he wanted to come with me this morning, because he wanted to "see what I do." We have had the best time together!

One of the discussion we had centered around Shaw's desire to be like David. He just thinks he was a cool guy. That of course got me talking about why he wanted to be like him, and how I thought that even with all of David's failures and triumphs, he was a great person to emulate, mainly because he was a man whose heart beat after God's heart. The conversation progressed enough that I even showed him Psalm 51 for him to read. Needless to say, I have cherished these moments together!

But that has me thinking on this First Sunday of Lent - isn't that what this season is actually all about? Our willingness to come before God in pure honesty and openness, and asking Him to create within us clean hearts before Him - hearts that beat after His.

This Lent, I want to be like Shaw too.

Lenten Blessings

Raw Honesty

So my sermon for this week centers on the next Beatitude:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

One of the things God has helped me to see in studying this small, but powerful phrase is that purity in heart isn't about my ability to be pure, but in my willingness to be completely raw and honest before God.

Isn't that the essence of what Lent is all about?

Lenten blessings.

Lent

After a stress-filled Ash Wednesday, and leading a small Ash Wednesday gathering for some of our folks last night, I logged in this morning and discovered that one of my old friends has taken up the discipline of writing for Lent. That was inspirational to me, so I have decided to try and follow suit.

I posted a small comment on his blog to commend him for his discipline, and as I was preparing to sign off my comment, I was struck with a thought...what kind of greetings do you bring someone during the season of Lent? It doesn't really seem appropriate to wish someone, "Happy Lent" since this is not really supposed to be a season of joy and frivolity.

I decided to just wish him, "Lenten Blessings" which may seem like a similar moniker to "Happy Lent," but I see it very differently. If we are really willing to embrace the ideas of repentance and discipline during this season, there is a sense in which we can discover blessing in the discipline.

One of the passages we read together last night at the Ash Wednesday Service was from Hebrews 12:1-14. In this text, the writer expresses the sentiment that our Heavenly Father offers us discipline because He loves us as His children. He acknowledges that no discipline is pleasant at the time, but later can be seen as a source of growth and blessing in our lives. Perhaps there is even a way for us to see the beauty and blessing in the midst of Lent, simply because the discipline we may be receiving from our Heavenly Father is coming to us from His pure heart of love for us, His children! What a blessing to be so considered God's child that we are recipients of his discipline!

Lenten Blessings!