Easter

Something More

| Marie Griffith

“Something perfectly new in the history of the Universe had happened. Christ had defeated death. The door which had always been locked had for the very first time been forced open.”  C.S. Lewis, Day 47 in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter

Easter Sunday has come and gone. The season of Lent is over but my journey of reflection continues with the daily readings from the devotional. I’m in the “New Life” section of the book now.

Frederick Buechner writes on Day 52:  “In the end, his will, not ours, is done. Love is the victor. Death is not the end. The end is life. His life and our lives through him, in him. Existence has greater depths of beauty, mystery, and benediction than the wildest visionary has ever dared to dream. Christ our Lord has risen.”

God has something more for us. But it’s not out there somewhere. It’s not tomorrow or in a few years or decades from now. It’s not when you finally have the family you’re praying for. It’s not only when your marriage gets better or when the cancer is gone or when the kids behave. It’s not just when you’re free from the addiction. It’s not only when you’ve reached your goal or when you’re living your dream.

It’s here and now.

It’s in the everyday mess of your life. The laughter and tears and everything in between. It’s in the middle of your battle. When you’re fighting for faith and trying to find joy. It’s in the hard work of reaching your goals. It’s the crying out to God when you don’t understand. It’s when you’ve conquered and when you’ve failed. When you go from feeling all is right in your world to feeling it’s hopeless. It’s when you fall and get back up. And it’s when you have no strength left to get back up.

He’s the God of your every day. Right there with you in the midst of your routine and obligations. Because “what God began, God will not abandon.” Madeleine L’Engle, Day 56

Something more is here and now.

“Those who live victoriously, though they wait in great hope and expectation for the final triumph of God’s grace, live even more in present experience of what that grace in Christ can do in their lives here and now. ‘Today shalt thou be with me in paradise’ is no idle promise for an indefinite future but a simple statement of what Christ can and will do here and now if we put our trust in him and open our lives to his presence and his power.”      Howard Hageman, Day 50

 

 

Hand Holders

| Marie Griffith

I began this Lenten journey anticipating a fruitful time of reflection, refocusing and repentance. It has been that and so much more.

This week’s readings from Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter have been especially rich with deep truths my heart needed.

The reading from Day 27 by Peter Kreeft about Jesus: “He came. He entered space and time and suffering. He came, like a lover. He did the most important thing and he gave the most important gift: himself. He sits beside us not only in our sufferings but even in our sins. He does not turn his face from us, however much we turn our face from him.”

Let that seep into your soul. Let it flow into the deepest places of hurt and fear and let it heal you. Jesus does not turn away. When my heart is broken…..when the pain feels too much for me…….when I don’t understand. He’s right beside me.

He’s there too when I’m full of pride or when I’ve judged someone and feel justified doing it. When I’ve ignored an opportunity to do someone good. Even when I’m mean or greedy. He’s there. Not turning away from me. Not pointing his finger……but reaching out his hand.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Jesus says in Matthew 28:20 “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Then there was this on Day 32. Dorothee Soelle writes: “God has no other hands than ours.”

The good that needs doing in the world will be done by our hands. Our hands.

Sometimes the way others know Jesus is with them and never leaves them……is by our being with them and not leaving. By our sitting right beside them whatever they’re going through. Sickness, painful circumstances, mental illness, bad choices, or foolish mistakes.

Jesus is the Savior. He’s the healer and the heart changer. But we can be hand holders.

Isn’t that what the Gospel is? The Good News that we don’t have to do this thing alone…..that Somebody has our back and loves us right where we are.

He’s here with me, holding my hand through it all……so I can hold the hands of the tired ones, the sick and hurting ones, the ones too weary to believe and the ones weighed down with regret.

I’m learning to be a hand holder.

 

Visit my friend Joy, on her blog  A Life Giving Moment for her Lenten journey.

 

 

 

Take Heart

| Marie Griffith

My Lenten journey coincides with another journey…..one I knew would be complicated and take me to hard and lonely places. But it’s a good journey. I don’t know of any worthy journey without challenges.

It’s the hard parts that make us stronger. We’re more courageous when we get to the other side of a trial. Our hearts are strengthened by God’s faithfulness and His promises become the anchors to our souls. And our trials are nothing compared with the glory to come.

“Jesus came to be the pattern, to leave footprints for the person who would join him, who would become a follower,” writes Soren Kierkegaard in the reading from Day 11 of Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter. He continues, “Christ’s life is a demand.”

God, give me courage to follow. Not to admire, but to follow.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”    John 16:33

 

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photo by dietmaha @ pixabay

 

 

 

 

path photo by danielam @ pixabay

 

 

 

 

 

In His Hands

| Marie Griffith

I knew this journey of Lent would be a slowing down for me as it should be. How can I reflect and reconnect and refocus at high speed? Those are “soul-speed” kinds of things.

So I am learning to take my time……take it in………be present.

The reading for Day 7 from Bread and Wine is called the The Relinquished Life. My favorite line is “God will make you fit for all He requires of you.” I recalled the verse that struck me last week from Jeremiah.

But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.     Jeremiah 18:4

If I’m going to be made fit for all He requires or shaped as seems best to Him……then I need to let Him do it. The clay is there for the potter to shape. The clay is marred but the clay is soft.

I must remain pliable in His hands.

And the shaping of pots is probably done best at soul-speed.

 

photo by Quino Al

And So I Began 

| Marie Griffith

I began this journey through the season of Lent today, this Ash Wednesday. I must confess I know very little about Ash Wednesday or Lent and some of what I do know has been learned as recently as today from my Google searches.

Since accepting my friend’s invitation to join her on this journey I’ve wondered why I was intrigued by the idea. But as I reread her invitation I remembered. Like her, I need to take some time to “reflect, repent and re-order what may have gotten off track.”  This is an opportunity…..a concentrated time of reflection…..a looking deep within and asking God to reveal what is there. A time of remembering God’s faithfulness and a refocusing on Jesus.

But why now?

I’m not sure except it seemed like the perfect time.

And so I began today on this journey where I’m learning as I go.

The introduction of “Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter” says that “Lent is the season in which we ought to be surprised by joy.”

I think I’m going to be.

 

 

The Road Taken

Bread and Wine

| Marie Griffith

I’m joining a friend of mine on a journey of reflection during the season of Lent beginning March 1.

Her invitation is found on her blog, A Life Giving Moment, in a post called A Journey Through the Season of Lent and I want to extend the invitation to you. She says what she says beautifully so I encourage you to visit her blog and see if you’d like to join us.

We are reading through “Bread and Wine – Readings for Lent and Easter”. I will share my thoughts weekly…….some on her blog and some here.

The book can be ordered through Amazon, other online stores or through the publisher listed on her website. If you decide to join us please let me know so we can stay connected and encourage each other.

The photo courtesy of Bouf16 @ Pixabay