Wednesday, March 3 Week 3 "Lent challenges us…"
LENT 2010 “40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS”
DAILY BLOG Week 3 Wednesday, 3/3
Is 55:1-9; Ps 63:1-8; 1 Cor 10:1-13; Luke 13:1-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts
Nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.” – Isaiah 55:8
Lent challenges us, to look at our own life and attitudes and beliefs, in order to focus more upon what God wants us to be and do. It seems so easy for us to wander away. We are easily lured by false promises and shallow appeals. But Isaiah calls to us to recommit ourselves to God’s offer of steadfast love and relationship – that we will be much more satisfied. And this is of course counter-intuitive. If we order our lives according to conventional wisdom, then none of this is going to make sense. The life that God calls us to is not a “drop-in” life. It’s not fast-food religion. God asks for nothing less than everything.
The poet Mary Oliver asks: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Well?
To offer reflections on this day, go to www.fccorange.com/blog
Just this week, I have made a big step forward — I’ve met with an academic adviser at Claremont School of Theology to advance my application to begin an M.A. program there this fall in religious education/stewardship and giving. I have lived my wild and precious life for 59 years so far, and in recent years I have felt God’s call to…..something. The past 2 years have been spent discerning what that “something” might be. For a long time, I resisted the notion of focusing on stewardship and giving, thinking, “But I am such a ‘people person’! I don’t just want to deal with money!” But here’s how I think now: Jesus talked about money way more than anything else. Money isn’t just money, it’s a symbol of so many things in our lives. And all questions of stewardship and giving revolve around our hearts and our relationship to God! Which is what draws me — my heart, and my own relationship with God and with others who all carry God inside of themselves as God’s children. I am now excited and, OK, a bit nervous, but I am going for the Claremont degree AND even designing the educational curriculum so that I might have a shot at ordination when I come out at the far end.
Thanks for letting me share about this big news in my life, which is also a piece of God’s newsletter about our lives! And hey, any time you quote Mary Oliver, my favorite poet, you’ll get a connection with me……….
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