Good morning…
Many are in habit of “giving something up for Lent,” but all of us have unexpectedly given up much more than chocolate for Lent 2020. We have given up NBA basketball, the March Madness tournament, and fantasy sports leagues that offer delightful distraction. We have given up time with friends, big group gatherings, hugs, touches, and natural bonding moments. We have given up proms, graduations, final sports seasons, and a long list of much anticipated “lasts.” We have given up jobs, financial security, old familiar routine, and a false sense of certainty. We have given up the gift of being beside dying loved ones, no final last words, no saying everything needed, and no precious last memories to sustain the grieving. Collectively, we have certainly given up more than chocolate this Lenten season.
This Good Friday may we settle deeper: “I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it” (Philippians 3:10, MSG). As we endure and adapt to all we have lost this Lent, may we, like the Apostle Paul, give God great honor: “But I have had help from God to this day, and I stand [before people] testifying to small and great alike, stating nothing except what the Prophets and Moses said would come to pass — that the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed) was to suffer, and that He by being the first to rise from the dead [with an incorruptible body] would proclaim light (salvation) both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:22-24, AMP).
On this one-of-a-kind Good Friday morn, let’s walk with Jesus through his final earthly steps as he too gives up a lot more than chocolate. Maria Cressler, the Director of the nearby Ignatius House Retreat Center, is also my good friend and neighbor. Maria has given me permission to share with you this vulnerable video. This Lenten season, we have been pruned back from the sacred grounds and the spring retreats hosted at Ignatius House, but with this beautiful footage God invites a wider number of us to a deep, soulful level this Easter weekend. Experience with me the “Stations of the Cross” filmed on God’s lush holy ground overlooking the Chattahoochee River.
…Sue…
