Lent

I'm discovering a deeper appreciation for my Christian heritage, which is a profound encouragement given that on my journey I've contemplated whether or not to discard it for something else entirely. While I've had to discard some particular beliefs and ways of interpreting things in order to make room for a fuller understanding of many other sources of truth, I've also discovered a great deal more beauty than I had seen in the past. My heart is more open to receive and I think this makes all the difference in the world.

I've never really given anything up for Lent before, and wasn't planning on starting, but I felt compelled. My heart was moved to give up bread. I hadn't thought about it before but it fits in well with the Lent narrative, which is Jesus' forty days in the wilderness before he began his ministry. Part of the narrative speaks of his temptation to turn the rocks into bread, something entirely appealing if you've been fasting for that long! But he refused, quoting the Torah that we do not live by bread alone but by the very words of God. It's not that eating bread is wrong or even that turning rocks into bread is wrong, it's that the wilderness is about something else.

"What is most important to me?"

This is the perennial question that Jesus was wrestling with and it's the same question that confronts us all, thousands of years later. Jesus' time in the wilderness wasn't simply a test but rather a preparation. Just how far was he really willing to go? How much was he really prepared to give? How much of his life was he willing to surrender?

Jesus emerges from the wilderness with one clear response, "Everything."

For those of us at a place where we're serious about our spiritual growth, every moment is a confrontation with these questions, though they are often drowned out by the noise of the world and the chaos of our own minds. We don't like to face them because we don't like to face the parts of ourselves that are unwilling to give anything for the sake of spiritual transformation, let alone everything.

When we ask ourselves, "What is most important?", we likely won't uncover the most noble or unified answer and yet this is exactly what we must face if we do want to move forward. We need to face and take responsibility for all the parts of ourselves that have no interest in our spiritual transformation, in becoming a vessel for God in this world. If we're serious about our own development then we must make room in our lives for this question and create the space necessary to be genuinely present with our answers.

The journey into the wilderness is neither easy nor comfortable. But it is the wilderness that we discover the deeper answers.

Jesus emerges from the wilderness with an unshakable confidence in who he is, why he is here and where he is going.

These gifts are freely offered to all who would seek them out. Lent is an invitation to seek until we find. It's an invitation to encounter truth for ourselves, not mediated through any person or concept but as a direct experience of Reality.

Jesus emerges from the wilderness and changes the course of history.