Expectations as move through Lent

In our newseries for the season of Lent  we are making out way through the question: "What Are You Waiting For?" The Season of Lent is a time of change, but so often we are resistant to change, and especially resistant to "getting over" things. Often its little things and sometimes over everything. Of course it slows us down and can wear us out, but it can be a stumbling block in our professional life and deeply damaging in our relationships. This Lord's Day we talk about one of those hurdles - expectations and how we need to take in the bigger view

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Regardless of the enterprise: business, athletics, the arts, literally any endeavor: to be successful one needs a well developed plan. We have all heard the worn out cliché: “No one plans to fail; they only fail to plan.” Those who have achieved greatness in life testify to the validity of this statement and that there are at least three ingredients to success: a specific goal, a detailed strategy to achieve it, and a positive attitude with HIGH EXPECTATIONS. These elements are nearly intuitive, yet we almost never employ them when dealing with THE most important matter of all, our spiritual lives.

Today, the Second Sunday of Lent, is part of our 40-day journey of preparing to celebrate the single most important event in the history of humankind: The Resurrection of Jesus. Yet dare it be said that few if any of us have ever put together a strategy for a “successful” Lent. At best, perhaps we have agreed to give up a favorite food, beverage or activity during this time. But this begs the question: “WHY?” What is the goal of six weeks of deprivation? 

Are there any EXPECTATIONS of what is to be achieved? Without a goal and without HIGH EXPECTATIONS, we risk achieving any growth or any change. To quote another (whimsical) cliché: “You can’t get there if you don’t know where you are going!”

Perhaps today’s Gospel from St. Mark can help us develop a Lenten goal as we ask our question - what are you waiting for? Jesus had been in the company of the Apostles discussing the conditions of their discipleship. He then led them to the mountain top to reveal the reward for their ministry and the hardships that would accompany it: TRANSFIGURATION (i.e. spiritual transformation). The disciples too can become “dazzling white!” They too can hear God’s voice pronouncing them “beloved” if they “listen to (Jesus) him!” 

Our goal then for Lent could be like Peter, James and John’s: to meet God on the mountaintop. If we give up chocolates or alcohol, shouldn’t it be in order that God will call us “beloved” as well? Whatever we plan to do (or “give up”) for Lent, if we develop and stick to a specific strategy, we should have a HIGH EXPECTATION for spiritual transfiguration! This may sound extreme, but Jesus doesn’t ever ask us to do more than what he is willing to do. He gave up everything for US, even his own life!

Abraham too, often called the “father of our faith,” left everything behind to go to the land God had promised to him. Because he did, God blessed Abraham with a longed for son. Later, God tested their relationship, by asking for Isaac’s life. (“Do you love me enough to freely give it all back?”) We might see this test as too great a demand. But Abraham spoke not a word, and set out to do what God requested. Abraham did something most of us find far too difficult. He completely trusted God, who rewarded that trust providing not only a ram for the sacrifice, but also blessing Abraham with eternal progeny as numerous as the sands on shore or stars in the sky.

During Lent, if we set a goal with a specific strategy and keep our EXPECTATIONS HIGH, we too will be rewarded with TRANSFIGURATION. Although we would much prefer to have just the salvation and blessing part without the testing, that has never been God’s way. God instead has HIGH EXPECTATIONS of us putting our lives in God’s hands by saying “Here I am!”

Lent begins... What Are You Waiting For ?

Check out details on the Season of Lent

We get offended, put off and angry by so many things - traffic, being late, relationships, not meeting our goals. So often its over little things and sometimes over everything! Of course this slows us down and wears us out. Often all we need to do is "get over it", but the how can be a stumbling block. In our newseries for the season of Lent we will ask ourselves what are the stumbling blocks to getting over stuff. 

Each of us in our life gets offended or upset. It may come from something that breaks a law or rule or something we simply see as distasteful or unpleasant. Being offended in life is inevitable. You can’t get through a year, a month, a week, or even a day without being offended in some way. Some offences that we experience are simply perceived. We feel offended or hurt even though no real harm or injustice has been done to us. It is just our wounded pride or bruised ego. Then, there are real offences. We live in a sin-stained world and people will lie to us or cheat us or steal from us or harm us in some other way. Sometimes these lead to anger, and sometimes that anger can be lingering and it can slow us down or impact our own success. Offences are a trap, they are a temptation.

As we begin Lent we are painted with a picture in our Gospel of Jesus in the desert faced with temptation. In this encounter in the desert Jesus comes to portrays for us who He is and what He is about. Now Mark the Gospel writer does not go into the same detail of this happening as Matthew or Luke - we are not listed the temptations that Jesus faced - just that He was. So what is Temptation? Well for our series we will go with the working definition that it is “an invitation to embrace self-interest”

If we are not careful, we will take offenses into our heart and harbor them there. When we hold on to an offense, we become angry and entitled and self-centered. If this grows roots within us, then it is the invitation to look so much at what I want or need that the other becomes unimportant to our life. Yet what we must remember is that when your life is all about you, you don’t just hurt yourself, you lose yourself... we begin to live life in the desert.

The desert has always been a place of mystery and fascination. The African Sahara appears to be an infinitely desolate, isolated “ocean” of deprivation; a place of DEATH! Yet, amazingly, some species have been able to not only adapt to such a harsh and primitive environment, but THRIVE in the desert. Once they have become so accustomed to so little, too much water or nourishment are destructive to them. Such an example is the American desert rose, which blooms only when deprived of all but the slightest amount of water and soil nutrient.

Ironically, the desert is always the place God sends his faithful to find LIFE! Moses spent 40 days fasting and repenting for the sin of Israel in the desert. The Israelites journeyed 40 years through the desert to reach a land “flowing with milk and honey.” The great monastic fathers of the Church sought refuge from destructive elements of LIFE, in the place of “death”: the desert. And therein lies the answer. The desert is the place to escape LIFE’s worldly abundance, which often leads to spiritual death. Only when one puts to death their destructively obsessive, self-indulgent nature, can the source of everlasting LIFE be discovered. In the spiritual life, LESS TRULY IS MORE!

And with that, St. Mark tells us, the Holy Spirit compelled (“drove”) Jesus to go to the desert where He struggled, as do we every day, with what it means to be human. Mark does not go into the details of the other Gospels as to what these struggles were, only that Jesus found himself between the Spirit and Satan, between the wild beasts and the angels sent by God and ministered to him. Jesus emerged from the desert with his own answer to human life. He called it the Gospel, the good news of God, robust with infinite mercy, love and LIFE! Jesus emerged aware that the reign of God was at hand precisely because God was at hand with Jesus throughout his temptations.

This week begins our 40 day journey we call “Lent,” a time to allow The Spirit to “drive us” into “the desert” endeavoring to get away from the materialism and self-indulgent life style that we have become addicted to, but what many have discovered only drags us down and drives us away from God. We are called to accept the LIFE changing offer Jesus made: “Repent and believe.” Repent (in Greek: metanoia) which doesn’t mean to be sorry, but to literally turn one’s life around and go in the opposite direction. Believe in the Gospel: we can change direction, but not walk in the direction of the Lord. Jesus is calling us to do both. “Take on a new perspective! Believe what I am saying about God and about true LIFE and happiness!” If we allow the Spirit to “drive us” to “die in the desert,” we can discover TRUE LIFE. Once we strip away all that we believe has value and we think can sustain us, and wrestle with the “wild beasts” of fasting, almsgiving, penance and prayer, we will uncover in this place of isolation, desolation and deprivation what Jesus and our spiritual fore-fathers discovered: “Springs of Living Water”: a God who will eternally sustain us with joy and fulfillment. Like the desert rose, we can learn to not only adapt to a world of less, but that we can physically and spiritual thrive from a life of less.

You see the more we just look at ourselves, or remain locked in the mud of our own existence, the more we miss the opportunities that God gives us to discover who we are by interacting with others and learning through such. We have a choice about how to handle offences. Rather than falling into a trap, we can choose to deal with temptation (“an invitation to embrace self-interest”) in a healthy manner. 

Lean into Lent with a Defining Moment

In his Book “Perfectly Yourself”, Matthew Kelly, leads us into a point of reflection which is a pretty tone setting one for Lent – “Be Disciplined.” He recaps for us the invitation to look at the “Wins and Woes” daily, to keep track of asking Jesus daily “Where Do you Live?” (where are you?) and to come to grips with what are our core values as followers of Jesus. He also gives us the room, for ourselves, to focus every day to simply pray our own little prayer:

Jesus I am looking for you

Jesus I want to see where you live

Jesus I want to come and see every day

This is a prayer, which we wrote, that helps us in the silence of listening for His voice to remember that Character Defines our future, and that what we hold on to, and let go of, both help us to define who we are and whose we are. Ultimately this give us freedom to be Perfectly Yourself, and also to experience the fact that moments matter.

During the last course of this series we have been saying that for most of us - we don’t judge life on the basis of all of the events we have gone through, - but rather we look at specific moments which come to stand for the whole. Moments matters because they form a lens through which we view things, understand ourselves and our place in the world.

Some moments matters more than others – and we have come to call those Defining Moments. Defining Moments are brief intense experiences which bring definition and meaning to our life Defining Moments are never for ourselves – they are often to aide us in our relationship with others and we don’t have to be perfect to have a Defining Moment. They are Moments of Decision - saying Yes.  Moments of Definition - knowing the way. Moments of Determination - deciding to keep at it. And when we experience them - well our life has a clear meaning.

But God also choose, as He has through all of scripture, to use moments to impart a value or enrich a vision for our life. We call these – teachable moments. They are occasions where our life gains a clarity that permits us to impart a direction that impacts not only us, but instructs another, in the way we should go. Rarely would these moments be “voices from the sky” or “stars in the East” as we have learned, but they often come through the touch of Christ, upon us, or through others.

Do you recall any teachable moments from your youth that were impressed upon you by a parent, coach, teacher, pastor or other authority figure? If so, what were they? Could these have been teachable moments? Was Christ impart upon you a vision and value to aide in your journey? What were they? How did you feel about them? Is there a way you can now share them and be His touch for another – remember a Defining Moment is never just for ourselves.

We lean into Lent which commences on February 14, 2018 which is Ash Wednesday with a new Message Series – What Are You Waiting For?.

What do we celebrate?

So millions of people were doing the same thing on Sunday Night – they were watching the Superbowl. The climax of a football season in the United States that has people gathering with friends, consuming large amounts of food, and breaking all sorts of records and reasonableness when it comes to expenses. It shows that when something matters to us – well we celebrate. Celebrating is certainly a part of Defining Moments.

Over the last five weekends we have been look at “Defining Moments” – these occasions which bring definition and clarity to our life - which before we did not have. These defining moments are moments brimming with meaning..... Moments of Decision - saying Yes. Moments of Definition - knowing the way. Moments of Determination - deciding to keep at it.

These Defining Moments can be as bright as a Star in the East, or an Angel in the Sky, but most often they are as subtle as an encounter while we are busy in our day, as in the Gospel of today. But Defining moments also have a certain nature to them - We are never called for our own sake, but for the sake of others. Defining Moments come into our life - not solely to affect us! God does not invite us closer to Him simply for ourselves - but as part of His plan that all of us would be united to Him.  Defining Moments also have the danger of containing a certain nonsense to them. To be called does not require perfection on our behalf, only fidelity and holy listening.

In his Book “Perfectly Yourself”, Matthew Kelly, has been inviting us to look at the “Wins and Woes” daily, to keep track of asking Jesus daily “Where Do you Live?” (where are you?) and together we have even written our own little prayer:

Jesus I am looking for you

Jesus I want to see where you live

Jesus I want to come and see every day

A prayer that helps us in the silence of listening for His voice to remember that Character Defines our future, and that what we hold on to, and let go of, both help us to define who we are and whose we are. Ultimately this give us freedom to be Perfectly Yourself, and also to experience defining moments.

Last week to tackled what our Core Values are and in an important message we were invited to take a good look in the mirror – who do we resemble? Do we look like Jesus in those chosen values?

This Lord’s Day we build upon this, and we approach the conclusion of our series – which is next weekend (February 10/11), our two questions become – what do we celebrate? And can we let go?