Wilderness
As hard as it may be to believe, we are already in the Christian “season” of Lent. Lent is that six-week stretch that leads us to Easter. I like to think of Lent as a journey and a time of preparation.
This year for Lent, I’m working with the image of “wilderness” as a guiding metaphor. While we might think of wilderness as a form of punishment or a means of escape, I think of wilderness as a place where God forms us.
Scripture is full of wilderness stories. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus are a few people in the Bible who spent time in the wilderness. The wilderness is where faith is stripped down to what matters most and where God shows up with surprising clarity.
Throughout the weeks of Lent leading to Easter, we will explore different aspects of wilderness found in Scripture: testing, waiting, loneliness, exile, fear, and even betrayal. Of course, these challenges are not confined to the Scriptures. We wrestle with them today. They are places many of us know well.
This Lent, I invite you to pay attention to where and how God is at work. And if you happen to feel like you are currently in some kind of wilderness, I pray that you will see this challenge not as something to rush through, but instead an opportunity for healing to happen, for courage to grow, and for faith and trust to be shaped.
I hope you will be intentional about your Lent journey this year. Maybe you will commit to worship each week, setting aside time for prayer, reflection, and meditation, engaging in a devotional practice, or simply naming the wilderness you are in right now. However you choose to practice Lent, I pray that it is a powerful time of growth and formation, one that leads you to greater joy as we celebrate the hope and good news of Jesus’ resurrection, his victory from the wilderness of death, on Easter Sunday.
Because this is the ultimate good news: God will not leave us in the wilderness. Lent always moves toward Easter. When we find ourselves in difficult places, we can trust God bring us out into new life.
Whatever wilderness you may find yourself in right now- exhaustion or elation, apprehensive or hopeful, suffering or celebrating – you are not alone. This Lent, let’s journey into the wilderness together, trusting that God will meet us there and lead us, in time, to the joy of resurrection.
With love, and joy, serving as your pastor,
John McLarty