Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing:
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43:18-19
Dear Church Family,
As I examine this scripture reading from Isaiah, it is hard to believe God is about to do a new thing! This has been the longest, coldest and snowiest winter we have had in a very long time. This winter has been a wilderness experience for some of us, a wilderness that feels like punishment.
As we travel through the season of Lent we are drawn to and through a wilderness time. A time that should not feel like punishment, but a time of preparation. Preparation for that which is new.
In scripture we are reminded again and again that God meets us in barren places, in wilderness places. It is in barren times we focus on work that needs to be done. Our distractions slip away and we have great clarity. In the wilderness we learn who we are and whose we are, we learn what we are made of.
The wilderness can feel uncomfortable. Wilderness time insists on stripping us from our past, stripping us from what feels familiar.
Some people move into the unfamiliar with grace, some are never able to accept that which is new.
Lent asks us to loosen our grip on “former things,” old regrets, old patterns, old wounds, those things which no longer give life.
Lent is a time to be future focused, because we are, after all, on a journey toward the Cross.
God is future focused. I do not think God wants us stuck in “what has been.”
I believe God’s work leads us into “what will be.”
The path may not always be clear, but we can trust God as our guide. Let us release what belongs to the past. Let us watch expectantly for signs of new life (spring soon?).
I pray we have eyes to perceive it and courage to walk through it.
With hope in Christ,
Pastor Val