Saturday of the Fifth Week in Lent

Our co-author, Walter, is in Arkansas so y'all are stuck with me again to begin this last week of Lent.

I was fascinated the other afternoon as two wonderful friends of mine discussed one of the after effects of Cancer therapy. They both said that they had lost feelings in their extremities especially their hands and feet. They had learned to be careful picking up items with their hands, but more fascinating to me was their discussion about being careful when they stood up to notice where their feet are pointing. If they weren't careful they may think they are headed in one direction only to find themselves headed due right or left because they had not noticed the direction their toes were pointing.

As we approach the beginning of Holy Week and the end of Lent, like my brave friends, we need to focus on where we are headed in our lives. This Lenten season we have engaged in meditation, prayer, and reflection on who we are and where we want to go with our lives. It is almost time to rise and head out in the direction our soul directs. Yet, before we do let's spend this last week focusing on where our toes are pointing.

We have learned by our failures during Lent that there are numbing forces in our lives that want to direct us away from where we intend to go. We will try and identify a few of those "numbing forces" and make sure that when we arise on Easter Sunday our toes are headed straight ahead.

Webb

Friday of the Fifth Week in Lent

I suggest we all just reread Walter’s meditation from yesterday. Thank you, son.

However, Suzy will not let me get by with being lazy. So here goes.

“Dear Webb, Out of all my friends, you seem to be getting the most diverse experiences out of life. -- David.”

During one of my darkest moments in the mid 1990’s I received a postcard from a friend who was in South Africa. On the back were the words you find above. I still have his card, and the words are the first words inscribed in the journal I began on my sabbatical. Many a time over the next years, I turned to those words when I found myself wondering “why me.” They brought a smile to my face then, and they still bring a smile to my face today. David, my old teammate and roommate at Toad Hall helped me keep things in perspective.

David, has a PHD in Geology and at the time of the postcard was searching for Gold in South Africa. I thought he was living a diverse life. David reminded me that as Victor Frankel said, “ the last of human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.” I needed to realize I was about to experience some thing new and different and, no matter how difficult, embrace it as part of my life.

As we take stock during Lent let us all celebrate our uniqueness. Our experiences, both the good and the bad, are part of us, and smile. Each of us is “getting the most diverse experiences out of life.”

Webb

The Sixth Thursday in Lent

"As down in the sunless retreats of the ocean Sweet flowers are springing no mortal can see,So deep in my soul the still prayer of devotion, Unheard by the world, rises silent to Thee" --- Thomas Moore

At our YMCA where I work out, every morning I see a very elderly woman, at least half past eighty, frail and feeble and barely able to walk.

Every morning I watch her, with the help of an attendant, slowly walk to the flagpole in the center of the parking lot and raise the American Flag. I cannot remember a time in the last six years that I have been there in the morning and not seen this woman raising the flag. If it's raining she goes out in a bright red poncho. If it's is very cold she walks out in a big white down parka, but she is always there to raise the flag.

She is in obvious pain when she walks, her steps are so short the crossing to the flag takes a long time and a lot of patience. But she smiles when the flag goes up and she stands for a moment watching it in the breeze. I don't know who she is, or why she is so committed to raising the flag. I sometimes like to imagine that the flag is to honor a fallen husband or relative. Or perhaps she was in the armed forces herself, or the USO. Whatever the reason, that flag is her daily devotion to something greater than herself.

When I sat down to write today, I had her image in my head. The single word that I thought was "devotion." How truly wonderful it must be to be so devoted to a single act of goodness and patriotism every single day. As I left the parking lot this morning, I was filled with a strong desire to be kind today. To make it through work without negative thoughts, and to enjoy my time at home with my family more than ever. Her act of devotion impressed on me a need to find my own devotion.

Walter

Wednesday of the Fifth Week in Lent

“From this it follows that the one who prays correctly never doubts that the prayer will be answered, even if the very thing which one prays is not given. For we are to lay our need before God in prayer but not describe to God a measure, manner, time, or place.” -- Martin Luther

I came across this, this weekend. I don’t know that I have ever had that much faith. The faith to know with absolute certainty that my prayer will be answered. This is the mustard seed, mountain moving type of faith. The faith that cured my friend of Cancer when every one was privately shaking their head. We were praying, but did we really believe that our prayers would be answered?

What Luther suggests is that we lay before God our personal troubles and know, without a shadow of a doubt, that not only we will be heard; but that, our prayer will be answered. Maybe that is what he means when he prefaces his thought with “one who prays correctly?”

It is harder than it appears, at least for me. If Luther is right, I am called to know , to believe, and to trust that my prayer will be answered. This is a challenge, but somewhere in my soul I sense Luther is on to something.

“... ancients defined prayer as Ascensus mentis ad Duem, ‘ a climbing up of the heart unto God.” -- Martin Luther

The Fifth Tuesday in Lent

"You know we just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, well, there'll be other days. I didn't realize that that was the only day. " - Field of Dreams

Yesterday was Opening Day of course so we were do for a line from a baseball movie. This one is from Archibald Graham who, if you remember the movie, never got to bat in the major leagues. In the movie, he gets his second chance, but chooses, once again, to be a doctor instead.

I often reflect on missed opportunities. If I had only taken that job in Virginia, If I had only invested in Yahoo, if I had only kept playing baseball. What if? But the more I reflect on them, and the older I get, the more I have come to believe that I am walking a path set by God. The hardest part is knowing if I am still on his path.

And if I fall off of his path, if I fail to grasp an opportunity or I make a mistake along the way. Where does that leave me? Faith in God is also Faith in second chances. Whether I fall from his path through sin or I just miss his message to me, I am confident that his eternal love for me will lead me back to his road.

Like Archie Graham, I lament that I have failed to understand the significance of moments. But I understand that I am following God's path and he may have something else in mind for me.

"Fifty years ago, for five minutes you came within... y-you came this close. It would KILL some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it. God, they'd consider it a tragedy."

"Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes... Now that would have been a tragedy."

Walter

Saturday of the Fifth Week in Lent

A reader writes:

I was wondering if we could have a meditation or two about our Lenten promises. I know we did this at the beginning, but I was wondering if perhaps the 5 year old philosophers could share with us what they think and what their Sunday school teachers say about breaking your Lenten promises. About falling off the wagon, so to speak.

I have noticed that I have become, particularly now when are getting so close to Easter, quite lax in maintaining my Lenten promise. Conviction has given way to convenience. One break or mistake has given way to the slippery slope - "well, I have already cheated" "or, well, I have already messed up....." I feel sort of like that scene in Circle of Friends when Minnie Driver's character, Benny, says in a moment of pity and self doubt, and reaching for a chocolate candy she had been trying not to eat "Oh, go on Benny, ruin yourself." That once I have been imperfect, the quest to even try to honor myself and my promise to God, seems wasted.

Easter is just over two weeks away -- is it too late for me to get back on the horse? To finish the race I started? Is it too late for me?

Sometimes I wonder if my problems maintaining my Lenten promise reveals a good deal about how I live outside of Lent.

The reader strikes a chord. I am not a philosopher or theologian, so I have asked that Will and Jake help our reader and all of us with this one.

What I think is that our reader rather than failed, has succeeded, in understanding Lent. Lent is about understanding our human frailty. As we try to honor our promise to God we confront humanities’ answer to obedience — rationalization. Often rationalization wins out. It is at these moments we see the nature of God. He forgives, he comforts,and most importantly he loves.

We also see our nature. We are human and we seek what is comfortable. But, if we remain open, we learn. Any athlete will tell you that you learn more from your failures than your successes. That any rider will tell you that the only thing to do is get back on the horse. Imperfection is not a waste, but an opportunity.

God considered not action, but the spirit of action. It is the intention, not the deed, wherein merit or praise of the doer consists. -- Pierre Ab ailard

Monday of the Fifth Week in Lent

I want to continue Saturday’s discussion and then raise a thought as we begin our last two weeks together.

I have noticed that I have become, particularly now when are getting so close to Easter, quite lax in maintaining my Lenten promise. -- Reader

Let me first remind everyone that a great resource for meditation is a good sermon. I now have a full well once again. Thank You, Hannah.

This morning Hannah in a very eloquent way, answered our reader’s questions that I published Saturday. She too said that Lent is about realizing that we need God. Lent is not about the “Easter Chocolates” we sneak late in the evening. Lent is about understanding our rebellious nature and how much we need God.

Hannah also planted a grain of wheat with me today that I want to explore with you as we approach our remembrance of the last days of Christ.

As I listened to her talk about broken hearts, I found myself asking this question:

“ What was more painful for Christ — the physical torture, the lashes, the carrying the heavy cross, the piercing wounds, the broken legs, and the nails, or the broken heart he must have had knowing one of his dearest friends would and had betrayed him.” Just as we believe he died to forgive our sins, we must also believe he also died on that Good Friday to forgive and redeem Judas.

Take that thought into your meditation. Does that thought call you to any action? Can you forgive that person who broke your heart? Does just this concept give you a a smidgeon of an idea of how great God’s love is for us. Jesus died for Judas. Not just for the sins of Mary, Peter, and his loyal disciples — the “Easter Chocolates.” Jesus died to save Judas.

The Fifth Sunday of Lent

"And I know it aches And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much, walk on, walk on" - U2

Out Church service this morning was designated "Walk with Jesus" Sunday. It was an instructional Eucharist which, if you have never sat through on before, I highly recommend. Sometimes the service at church becomes old hat. The instruction really reminds the importance of every part the service.

The choir sang three great versions of the song "I want Jesus to Walk with me." The songs are just a repetition of those words over and over again in rising chorus. Rather than a sermon today, Father Jay merely asked that we listen to the anthem and meditate upon the words. So I will due the same.

After the service I asked Jake if he listened to the words of the music. "Why do we want Jesus to walk with us?" I asked him.
Jake responded, "If Jesus walks with you and holds your hand when you are going somewhere, you won't get lost because Jesus knows where everything is."

He is exactly right. I want Jesus to walk with me, because with him, I will never get lost.

Walter