Ready to LENT?

 

March 4, 2025

While you are enjoying your Pączki or stack of pancakes with extra maple syrup today, I wanted to remind us that the season we call LENT is upon us again. Lent, that period that begins tomorrow on Ash Wednesday and continues until Easter, which has been a time for spritual growth and development, a season for renewal, refreshment, and creating space to follow the road with Jesus to the cross. To turn our attention away from the clutter of life, and hold space for what is everlasting.

Each year during Lent we talk about laying something down in order to take something up that will benefit our spiritual life and our walk with God. We often challenge one another to slow down, to rest, to experience the benefits of solitude. The Bible says much about this,

Isaiah 30:15 says “in returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength”

Psalm 46:10 says “Be still and know I am God.”

Mark 1:35 talks about Jesus practice of soul care “And early in the morning, a great while before day, he arose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed.”

Revelation 8:1 records these words “When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.”

That’s hard to do isn’t it? To be still, I mean, to practice solitude, to shut things down even for a few moments. I mean there are family things to keep us busy, chores and projects, work, sports, shopping, Church programs, Church meetings, appointments to keep, trips to plan … and list goes on and on.

I am aware that stillness can be hard because it is something we know little about in our culture of busyness. If we are honest, stillness and silence can bother us whether in a church service or in a conversation with someone. We want to fill the space with sound.

I once read these words, “Reading about Jesus, the impression left with us is that his silence did not come about because he was at his wits end and could think of nothing to say. Rather it was as though he strained his ear to listen. Stillness did not terrify him.” What if in this slowing down time, this stillness that we are not accustom too, in the quiet, we strain our ear to hear, to listen to and for the voice of God. “Be still and know that I am God”.

I have found, and the testimony of others supports this, that the most fruitful times in our lives are the spaces between the sounds, the times when you and things are still. So today, embrace the slow down, welcome the stillness and the quiet. BE STILL. Let the Good News in. You are not alone. You live in God’s world. God loves You. God is with us! May you find, today and everyday that "in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

PRAYER

Lord, thank you for enabling me to be still in your presence. You are my strength, and I trust in you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.