Welcome to Lent. Whether you engage in your own purposeful practice during this season or not, Lent overlaps for us with a season in creation in which much changes. Between now and Easter Sunday, there will be a great deal of change that happens in terms of climate and the flora and fauna around us. This world will grow, with or without us — even in spite of us!
There is a wisdom in the oak tree that knows when to begin budding. There is a wisdom in the jonquils that triggers them to send up shoots. There is a wisdom driving bird migrations and animal behaviors and more — much of it beyond our full comprehension.
I believe there is a wisdom in us as well, planted there by our Maker, that knows the way to growth. We may have been trained our whole lives to stifle its voice, but it is there — and it will forever be there — because this wisdom is something God has built into us. But hearing it alone is not enough either: we must act. Like the trees, we must bud. Like the jonquils, we must send out shoots. Like the birds we must fly.
In the words of W.E.B. Du Bois: “The most important thing to remember is this: to be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.”
Remember, we’re all in this together.
Pastor Michael