"Searching for Sunday" Lenten Devotional Series: Reflection

Tuesday, February 23

Reflection

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.—Matthew 7:7

Many of us lead extremely hectic lives.  I have to admit that, at times, my schedule becomes so filled that it difficult to hear the voice of God.  Although waking up at 7:00 AM on a Sunday feels like the last thing I want to do during the busiest times of the season, my mornings at Trinity give me the calm I need to hear what God is leading me to do.

Last year around this time I was feeling called to participate in a Trinity Lenten group, but also knew I was unable to commit. The groups were too far from our home or met at times that didn’t work with my family’s schedule. Instead of letting my “busyness” block God’s calling, I decided to form a Lenten group in my neighborhood.  We conveniently met on Sunday afternoons while our kids played in the basement. The location and discussion leader changed from week to week so no one carried too much of the load. The members are all crazy busy working mothers, but we know the importance of hearing what God has in store for our lives.  Fortunately, He is calling us into community again this year, and I can’t wait to see what unfolds. 

Prayer: Dear God, I admit that there are times when my schedule becomes so busy that I ignore your words.  Thank you for never giving up on me.  I know that when I listen for your voice, your plans for my amazing life become clearer.  What a gift! Amen.

Trudi Wright 

Make Way for the New

It is still summer, but my mind is turning to harvest. There is something deep within me that connects to this time of year. I get out my jars and preserve and pickle the end of summer’s bounty, as generations before me have. Harvest is more than gathering what has grown, however. It is the beginning of the dying season. In order for plants and fields to grow again, to produce something new, there must be a dying away of the old.

In an edition of The Robcast, a podcast by Rob Bell, he highlights the enormous meaning of Abram leaving his homeland at God’s direction. In Abram’s time, people did not leave their homeland. They stayed in the same place for generations; it was what was known to them. God’s request meant Abram doing something entirely new and unknown, and Abram said yes. In order to do this new thing that led to what we now know as a covenant with God and the dawn of a new religion, Abram had to leave behind the known. He had to let something end in order for something new to begin. All he had to go on was his trust in God.

I was recently reflecting with my colleagues on the meaning of my baptism. As a Baptist then, I answered my own call to baptism, and the words I heard at age 8 still carry powerful meaning: “Buried with Christ in baptism, raised to walk in the newness of life.” I have had many deaths and resurrections since then…things that have come to an end so that something new can begin, and parts of myself that have had to die so that I could become who I needed to be. A prayer never far from my thoughts is the Prayer of St. Francis, which ends “it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” In order to get closer to our true nature, our best self, our Christ-self, we are constantly evolving. It requires a letting go of what is known, a dying away of what no longer serves us. This is where new life begins.

As you enter into this time of harvest, reflect on what it is in your life that might need to be left behind. Trust in God to take you into the new territory of what is to become.

 - Rev. Lee Anderson, Trinity's Minister of Care