Tuesday, March 2, 2010

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

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