Pastor's Page
Next to the joy of Christmas and the gladness of Easter, the season of Lent seems like an uninvited guest to the calendar of faith. It starts during the drab grey of winter, and for many that sets the tone for duration. After all, who looks forward to giving up something—a traditional Lenten discipline? It goes against the grain of our American ideal of more rather than less.
Yet, whatever our misgivings, our spiritual journey needs these 40 days if we are to grow toward the fullness of who God calls us to be. It is a time for asking hard questions, questions that we can easily ignore if we are left to our own “druthers.” The gospel lesson read each year on the first Sunday of Lent directs our attention to what must be faced, even as Jesus faced temptation in the desert. At the heart of our Lord’s time of trial was the question of: Who would be in charge of his life? Would it be God or something of his own choosing?
That same struggle goes way back to the very beginning of the human story in the Bible. There in the garden, the human creatures were given the opportunity to make that choice. God had given them all they needed; they had but to trust in the One who made them. But all too quickly doubts arose. Perhaps they could do better on their own; perhaps God didn’t really have their best interests at heart. And that apple did look so tempting. The fateful step was taken…one that we take every day.
Jesus, however, chose the better way, the way of God even though that led to the sorrow of the cross. During the days of Lent we are invited to consider our choices, the temptations we face, the ways that we, too, turn away from God in the foolishness of our hearts. Such honest self-appraisal is painful but necessary, for what is not acknowledged takes on a life of it own.
It would be too much to ask, were it not accompanied by the assurance that God is our constant companion on this journey of discovery. For as we open the dark closets of our souls, they are illuminated by God’s grace--grace that gives us the power to choose the better way. Not that we will ever reach the point where we always make the right choice—in this life, anyway—but our average can get better as we stand fast on God’s promises and trust in One who is ever at work within us to enable us to do far more than we dare hope or dream.
Grace and Peace,
Patterson