With Lent beginning on Valentine’s day, and Easter falling on April 1 (April Fool’s day) it’s already a struggle to enter in to an important liturgical season, even before it has started. Even without competing with greeting card holidays, it’s tough to sift through daily distractions and find the reality that actually moves our days. Life as a Christian requires extra vigilance in our seeing and hearing, and it is difficult to maintain, especially with all the things competing for our attention moment to moment in any season.
Joel 2:12, which is often read on Ash Wednesday begins with God saying “Return to me…”. It’s so simple, so plaintive. These words slice through distractions like a hot knife through butter. They make me ask two questions: 1) How did I stray away? and 2) How do I get home? Lent is 40 days we are given every year to seriously consider those questions. We are called to focus on returning to right relationship with God.
Lent can mean giving something up, but it can also mean adding something in: a practice, a special layer of awareness, a chunk of time to your day for a specific purpose, etc. Over the next two weeks, it may be helpful to take some dedicated time to ask yourself where you are in your relationship with God. Are there areas where you feel far away from him? Where do you hear a call to return? Or maybe there’s just an area where it would be helpful to turn down the volume so you can hear, full stop. The 40 days of Lent is an annual gift we get, and it is a personal gift to each of us. 40 days to determine how we can answer God’s call to return to him.
Coracle is offering A Celtic Lent retreat at Corhaven on Saturday March 17th as a day to help you take time to meet with God during this season. That’s why Corhaven exists always, but we especially love to do this during liturgical seasons like Lent because it helps to have dedicated time to think about them, what they mean and why they matter. Coracle also put together a list of resources that you might find helpful guides during the season of Lent. We also want to draw your attention again to last week’s email highlighting An American Lent. Whatever ways you seek out, we hope they will lead you home, and that God’s voice will drown out all the others, and not just be calling you, but will also be conversing with you personally during this season.