Going…Where we might not want to go.Going…Where we might not want to go.

It’s here. Lent has come. We’ve been here before. What might be different this year? What might be different is that we are different. We are in a different place. This is most obvious nationally and politically. But what about spiritually? What about the hidden garden of my heart?

Lent is the time for cleaning out the garden…of the soul. It’s time to get rid of the trash, the old growth, the dead stuff. Why? Well, if you look carefully, you will see all sorts of new growth starting underneath the trash. So, clear it away…give the new a chance to grow!

But if I’m honest, I may not want to go there and do that. So, where am I going to go in this garden of mine? The wise Mother-Church takes us by the hand in the scriptures and leads us through the gate. First, there will be the desert, and we will learn that this is going to take work, and forces are going to gather to stop us. Then we climb a mountain, and surprise! We are shown what we will look like when the work is done! Next, we are shown the Fountain in the midst of our garden, and it is a living Person. Out of him flows the Spirit-water that gives life itself to the garden. By the fourth week we are pretty clear that we really don’t see too well, and we need this life-giving water to clear our vision as we do our clean-up work. By the fifth week we are led to face something we want to avoid: dying. We are shown there is no need to fear. The One who has the living water will take care of that too.

Then we enter the final week, where before our very eyes, he shows us how we will come through the key-hole of death into a new life. We call it Holy Week, for it indeed is holy. We watch as he gets sweaty and bloody, working beside us to clear our garden of whatever gets in his way. So, in this Lent of 2017,  we’re going. We’re going where we might not want to go.

Loving Gardener,

Desert Dweller,

Transfigured Human,

Living Fountain,

Vision Healer,

Death Destroyer,

Saving God,

Lead me where I might not want to go.

Sweat beside me

as I work to clear away what hinders the new growth in me you want to bring.

Clothe me in your new life

that with a radiant face

I might be a laser-light to pierce the dark with a just word.