The further I go, the more dangerous beauty I find.
Today was the third Sunday of Lent.
A list of things that Lent means to most people:
1.
The time of year where everyone shoves their faces with paczki before rubbing ash on their forehead.
2.
A period of 40 days where you commit to giving up something like chocolate, tantrums, or stalking your ex.
3.
The stuff you remove from the dryer and you belly button sometimes.
Lent has never meant a whole lot to me on a personal level. I have been attending church most of my life, so it always entered my radar, but mostly just as a calendar event and the lead up to Easter.
I volunteer with the preschoolers at my church, and this week we reflected on the story that reflects on Jesus' time spent in the desert.
It is so easy for me to get sidetracked by the mechanics of the story, that I completely miss its significance.
This story is about so much more than Jesus not eating for 40 days and being goaded by spiritual evil to engage in some theatrics.
Lent is a time to travel into the wilderness of our own soul. There, you must stare at those parts that you have tried to hide from others and ignore yourself. Only then can you open them up to yourself =, and ultimately to the divine.
This happened BEFORE Jesus started his ministry.
Whatever you believe about the Bible and Christianity, the accounts of Jesus the man are pretty impressive. In a couple of years, this carpenter organized and lead a political and religion uprising that threatened both the Roman Empire and the entrenched Jewish leaders. He did it by first intimately knowing the depths of himself.
If it was good enough for him, then maybe there is a thing or two that you and I can learn from his example.
You must go inward, before starting out.
Until next time, be blessed.
~Sam
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