“How Are You
Tending To the Emerging Story of Your Life?”
- Mark Nepo
You may have heard – Ash Wed service tomorrow
We’re joining with Columbia United Christian Church
The Meeting House
Basically this kicks off Lent
What is Ash Wednesday anyway… and while we’re asking, what’s
Lent?
As short as I can…
Lent could kinda-sorta be the “Mid-life crisis” of the church
year. But I don’t care for the “crisis”
part of the term…so let’s use “Mid-Life Assessment”
instead since this term seems to be more true to the event itself.
Often, at some point after a person has traversed the “young
adult” stage of life (although they still feel
like a young adult), some things change; perspectives, life, stages of
employment, etc.
In one form or another, a person in this stage of life may assess where they are, they may assess their contributions –to life, to
the family, to their spouse, to their work– up to that point, they may assess where their lives are headed… and
more.
It’ boils down to a very simple statement… there’s only so much time left! There’s perhaps a much greater awareness,
more than at other times in the past, that our days are really and truly
numbered!
So, now that you know that… what are you gonna do about it? About your life? About how you spend your time? About who you spend it with, and what you
do? About how you make your money? And
so many more questions…
For many, Lent has historically been a time to recognize how we
can often not live as we are called; of identifying places in our lives that
are spotted by “sin”. This has been the
classic Lenten focus over many years.
But… Lent can also be a time for us to “remember”… that we really
only have a finite amount of time here- to do what we do. But
so often, we spend our time not even thinking of the bigger picture. We’re busy with work, home, family, having
fun, taking the kids to this or that event.
My point is not that doing things with family or work is bad… my point
is that we don’t often – rarely would
be more accurately for most of us – even think
about where this precious commodity
is going… or why it’s going where it’s
going.
Lent calls us to STOP… stop…
at least slow down… slow down… and think.
Look around you – do you recognize where you’re at? What looks familiar? Get your
bearings.
And ask yourself – is this the direction you need to be
going?
Is this the place you need to be right now?
How can you make it a better place?
How are you as a travel companion?
Who are you travelling with?
And should you be travelling with them?
What are the deeper questions you need to be asking? Do you know?
How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?
And Ash Wednesday?
Well… this day reminds us in a very pointed way – time is very limited!
Ash Wednesday helps us to remember that every so often we need to
stop… and assess “us” and all that surrounds our living
Irony – we’re mostly too busy to take time to do things like this…
so if you’re not planning to come this evening… I’ll invite you to take some
time (for real) to do an assessment of your life.
But step one – Stop…
… and recognize there’s only so much time available to you.
Look around… and look within
And ask your deeper questions…
This is an invitation to look at what our lives are trying to tell us!
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