I have always been competitive, to a fault. As a teenager, I eagerly joined group games with so much enthusiasm causing injury to myself and others on more than once occasion. Why I felt a visceral need to win an aggressive game of musical chair I’ll never know. Winning can be intoxicating, no matter the context.
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We’ve all been there. The day starts off on a less-than-good note. You didn’t sleep well. The dog did its thing in the house. The kids aren’t cooperating. You’ve got 17,000 things to do today and about 2 hours (if that) to focus on them before it’s time to start the evening routine of dinner, story time, bedtime, cleaning. Oh, and you only finished 3 things on your list of things to do today.
When my husband and I were engaged and preparing our wedding, the handwritten guest list went missing. As I frantically rummaged through piles of papers, an image of him taking the list to make his own additions flashed in my mind. I jerked my head up and said in the most accusatory tone I could muster, “It was you!” Except it wasn’t. An hour later, I found the crumpled list among my things. Cue ashamed pre-wedding stress sobs.
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens In Ecclesiastes 3, the Wisdom teacher says aloud what we already know: there is a time for everything. For new life, for death. For planting and uprooting. For weeping and for laughter. For mourning and dancing. And yet, we resist. I want to laugh without ceasing. Keep the mourning at bay. I want to continuously reap. I do not want to stare at cold, still soil waiting for a shoot to emerge nor do I want to prune or uproot what has been planted. I want to glide easily from victory to victory, unhindered by seasons of difficult change, loss, or death. “Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91 is a Psalm of trust. The writer declares the presence of the Lord to be his heart’s true home. Dwelling in the shelter of the Most High results in rest for the weary wanderer. Rest comes from the assurance that God is worthy of our trust, a reliable refuge and fortress. In today’s passage, Exodus 5:10-23, God’s promised deliverance of the people Israel from slavery has gotten off to a rocky start. Not only has Pharaoh rejected Moses’ demand to free God’s people, a command Moses delivered in obedience to God, but Pharaoh has also made the people’s condition worse by requiring more labor from them. The people must now make bricks as well as gather straw, a primary ingredient in the bricks.
Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent. Lent is a season of preparation, the Spring Cleaning of the soul in a way. We intentionally set aside things, habits, and desires not because they are inherently wrong but because we want to make space for something else, namely wiggle roomfor the Spirit. We make space in order that the Spirit might move within us, cleanse us from sin, purify our hearts, and re-orient us toward the cross and our Crucified and Risen Lord.
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