Good morning…
After a deep, heartfelt conversation, she said, “For Lent, I am giving up trying.”
I thought to myself, “That’s a weird thing to say.” At first.
Then the thought strangely returned to me. Then again. And quietly, just now, again. As I sit still with her phrase in the middle of the night, I begin to understand what she might mean: “For Lent, I am giving up trying.”
Might we give up trying to please people, trying to fix things, trying to make things happen our way, in our time? The world teaches us from early on, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Yet, beneath all our trying, trying, trying again, might God have a different message?
One handful of peace and quiet is better than two handfuls of hard work and of trying to catch the wind (Ecclesiastes 4:6, GW).
The wind cannot be caught. People cannot be pleased. Things are not ours to fix or to make happen.
This is what the Almighty Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
You can be saved by returning to me.
You can have rest.
You can be strong by being quiet and by trusting me.
But you don’t want that.
You’ve said, “No, we’ll flee on horses.”
So you flee.
You’ve added, “We’ll ride on fast horses.”
So those who chase you will also be fast (Isaiah 30:14-16, GW).
Might our incessant trying be a form of fleeing fast from the God who invites us to rest in quiet trust?
…Sue…
