Lenten Message

After his baptism “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness…” (Matthew 4). 

And there

      he fasted

          and prayed

                    preparing himself

    for his ministry

     ….holding on to the knowing that God had a plan,

     ….and that this plan would reveal itself more fully over time.  

Trust

Jesus could not have done anything without trust that God was in fact leading him.  

      He could not have fasted without trust.  

      He could not have held on without trust.

           

     

"And the tempter said, 

              

         ‘If you are the Son of God, 

          command these stones to become loaves of bread!’

(Matthew 4:3)

Feed yourself on something other than faith in God!  

There’s so much to choose from!  

Help yourself! 

It’s usually harder for me to trust God in this way when there are other things to hang on to.  

Like stuff

   and technology

      and people

and money

I remember moments in my life where I had nothing to hang on to but trust... 

trust that someone else was in charge...

…someone greater than me.  

I had nothing left to hang on to but trust when we went to finalize our daughters adoption in Ghana 16 years ago.  

Those three weeks were draining – exhausting!     

      Everything was drained out of us…    

I can’t explain it… except to say I had nothing left to hang on to but trust.

I trusted God had a plan.    I didn’t know the plan, but I trusted God had one.     

I can’t tell you how many times I heard the voice…

“Just quit!”

“It would be easier for you if you just went back home!”

But I seemed to drift back to…

 “God has a plan…”  

“God has a plan…”

It is hard to trust, isn’t it.  

But when you have nothing else left … trust…   God is there.

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”  

--Thomas Merton