Lenten Moment

“Lord, Open My Life”

Maybe sometimes it happens all at once.   

Maybe there’s that ONE event 
          that throws open the doors of faith, 
       and life is changed all in one giant leap forward.   

Maybe it’s a big enough thing to really get us to assess life…  
       to boil it all down in that one moment…  and help us 
                come to a crystal clear realization that                        
      Yes!  we really ARE all connected!            
        And that Yes – God IS Real!     No doubt!                                   And that I AM called to live well     
                                    and earnestly     
                               and honorably,     
                       and grow in discipleship 
                              to a Living God!             
  
      And that my clarity of vision does indeed change my choices               from that day forward.                                      

I imagine sometimes it does happen that way.  

But I bet more often, it usually happens slowly, over time.   

I think more often, the doors 
                       of faith, 
                               and God, 
                           and life,  
      
                  are slowly opened,      over time     
                                                a lifetime      
                      of learning     and growing      and living.
      

Sometimes we grow conscientiously – 
          we make a choice to learn and grow.   

We make a choice to dedicate our time and energy towards     
    becoming better people, 
      better disciples of Christ, 
    better servants of God.     

But maybe more often it’s a desire we have 
           – a deep and sustained desire –  
       a simple desire     
                          to be better people, 
                         to live better, 
                           to be more faithful, 
                                                  more dedicated to our God.                                             
But a desire that gets waylaid by the myriad challenges and distractions our lives encounter on a daily basis.  
And we forget to give attention to that desire sometimes.   

Sometimes we put it down… and realize we’ve forgotten that desire, that hope.    

Sometimes it’s in the back-burner of our lives, 
     taking a back seat to the other countless things that demand             our undivided attention in the moment.  

Sometimes it’s a desire to be closer to God… 
          just a desire,       a wish,      a hope…    a longing...
                      that gets strangled by all the minutia of living.        

“Lord, Open My Life”…  can be a prayer 
                    for the Divine One to just get us on track 
                                                    once and for all.   

But maybe opening a life to Faith and God and Life itself… 
         is its own challenge… 
               a challenge we really do need to grapple with.                                                            Monthly      
                                                Weekly    
                                       Daily 
   

Maybe we need to do this…  
         the hard work of opening that door of faith ourselves…    
                                 through the daily challenges 
                                               of patience 
                                     of showing love
                          of showing compassion… 
                           of being compassionate… 

   of learning to be disciples of Christ…  
                   
      to strengthen our own muscles of faith 
              through the work of living the faith.  

Maybe another prayer could be… 

“Lord, help me to live my faith as well as I can today.  
     Remind me along the way that you are there… 
           remind me… 
                 to not forget 
               who I am."

       Amen