Its difficult to make a good decision when you dont have all the information. Its also difficult to move forward while trying to deny parts of your reality. Jesus came from a tradition that was brutally honest; just read a bit from any of Israels prophets to see how forcefully they spoke the truth. Jesus continued in this vein as he talked about what it really took to be people of God, to participate in the kingdom of God. Jesus knew what John the Baptist knew before him and what the prophets knew before both of them: without truth, people cannot heal. If we ignore the root cause of our wounds, we will continue to be wounded, even if we heal some of the damage. We might fix what has been harmed. But if we continue doing what caused the harm in the first place, we will simply acquire (or inflict) new wounds because the core activity has not changed. Lent is a good time to stop our activity long enough to look at it carefully, prayerfully, and to determine the specific truths of the situation. For example: --Am I exhausted because the schedule of the past month went out of control--or am I exhausted because I keep taking on responsibilities that are not mine to take on? --Do I keep butting heads with this coworker because she doesnt appreciate what I offer to the team--or have I misunderstood her perspective, her way of processing information, and her best strategies for getting things done? --Am I failing at a simple habit of daily prayer because Im lazy--or is there some resistance inside me that I need to deal with? --An excerpt from Vinita Hampton Wrights Praying Freedom: A Book of Lenten Meditations.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 14:30:00 +0000
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