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Before a New Journey or Undertaking

Prayers for All Occasions, 103

Lord, we pray that you will be with us and keep us as we go upon this journey called Lent. Let no change or chance take us out of your hand; prosper us in our way, and give us grace always to do the things that will please you.

Amen.

Though we might not think about it in such terms, Lent is a journey. Mainly, it's a journey into our interior lives, as we engage in self-reflection along the route to the cross. We undergo this spiritual and interior journey as did Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew 4:1-11 (that was our Gospel reading last Sunday, BTW). Whatever we find as we journey to the interior, we trust that nothing will take us out of God's hand.

"Selah."

It's this word that get repeated a lot in the Psalms. While no one entirely sure what it means, there are some who think it indicates a shift in the music that was meant to accompany many of the psalms into a minor key.

Whether or not that's true, though, life shifts into a minor key during Lent. Things are a little more somber, reflective, and inward looking during this season. Throughout Lent, we'll think about what it means to live life in a minor key, while knowing that Easter is ahead of us.

17th-century philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote that: "All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone."

Now, I'm not sure if that's true. But his point suggests that human unhappiness and conflict arise from a constant need for distraction to escape one's own thoughts. In other words, we don't like to be alone with ourselves.

And yet, Lent asks us to journey into ourselves so as to recenter on Christ.

What's the hardest part about being alone with your thoughts?

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sam@stjohnsdecatur.org |662-656-653