For the last three days, the challenges for observing Lent were:
Day 10: If today is a day to do errands, add this to your list: "Go to the grocery store, get ten good food items and drop them off at a local food bank or shelter."
Second Sunday of Lent: Give up making excuses for not going to church. It’s Sunday . . . just go!
and for Day 11: Invite someone to church. Tell them what Lent means to you, and why this might be a meaningful time for them to sit next to you in worship.
Strangely enough, (or maybe it is not strange at all), I found the challenges for the past three days to share a common theme: "Looking for meaning". I have always looked for meaning throughout my life and oft not found it. Yet I always trusted that no matter what happened, it had some meaning. It had meaning whether it was revealed to me as it happened...later...or perhaps never at all. Everything has meaning. Looking for meaning is what keeps life interesting.
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Some background: It occurred to me while listening to the sermon in my church yesterday morning. The preacher was delivering a sermon based on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16. Now I usually do not use Bible scripture here in my blog, but somehow this one seems so very appropriate. The scriptures relate the story of Abraham and Sarah and how they had tried to have a baby all their lives and been unsuccessful. Then, after making a covenant with God, Sarah, in her nineties, finds herself pregnant. Never Too Late was the title of the sermon. Indeed, it is never too late, even when the hope of a promise being fulfilled fades. As long as we live in future tense, it is never too late for covenants to be fulfilled.
So that is how it became clear to me that these three activities, giving (food to the needy), acting (attending to your spiritual needs) and sharing (taking someone with you to church or wherever you are fed) are all related. The actions involved in each are part of the search for meaning.
We give to others so that we may receive. Whether it be satisfaction, joy, comfort, we always get something beyond what we give. As we allow the blessings to flow through us to others, they return heaping and pressed down. We always receive more that we give.
When we "just go" without excuses, we expose ourselves to opportunities to be inspired and awakened. Whether it be church, a hike in the woods or a trip to the museum, we go where we can be fed and find meaning in life's expressions in all there mystical and magical forms. The key is not to over-think it. Just go.
Taking someone with you to your place of worship or spiritual watering place, opens the communion of souls between you and your companion. Not only are you inspired then, but others see a side of you that may not have been completely visible before. It does not matter if your companion returns again to this spot. That is for them to find the meaning there, or, perhaps, to find a similar meaning in a spot of their own. Sharing the sacred opens the windows. Fresh air revives the spirit and should be shared. You cannot breathe for someone else, but you can inspire, as inspiring air into the lungs, the life-giving meaning of your scared place.
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As this 40 day journey continues, I am finding it is much different than I imagined. I thought it would be cool to follow this trail set by the UCC and see what develops. I thought I would simply do the exercises and write about them and be done. God (or whomever) moves in mysterious ways. And I am finding I am moved in many ways as I continue on this road to Easter.
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