Preparing for Pilgrimage...and Lent

I'm big on preparation.  It probably has something to do with my type A personality.  When it comes to taking a trip, I'm even more fanatical about being prepared.  I want to make sure all the logistics are taken care of well beforehand: flights, hotels, transportation, and itinerary.  I spend hours upon hours researching each detail to ensure the trip goes as smoothly as possible.

So when the dream of going on a pilgrimage to Israel became a reality, I dove right in to the logistics.  Hours upon hours later I had chosen the perfect hotels, birthed an exciting itinerary, discovered a wonderful tour guide, and booked the best transportation.  Next was the packing list and anything that needed to be bought for the trip.  Then there was work that needed to be covered: guest preachers, liturgists, Ash Wednesday service, excused absences from meetings, etc.  But that wasn't all.  I was missing a big part of my preparation. Perhaps the most important part of all: my spiritual preparation.

Preparing spiritually for a life transforming event is essential.  Without adequate preparation opportunities to grow deeper will be missed, whispers from the Holy One will be drowned out, and personal change will only be superficial.  Perhaps that is why the seasons of Lent and Advent were introduced into the Christian calendar.

You see, it's easy to neglect the spiritual preparation for a journey.  Lent is a spiritual journey toward the cross, and ultimately the empty tomb.  Yet for many, Easter preparation centers around Easter clothes, Easter lilies, Easter dinner, and Easter egg hunts, instead of an inward invitation to go deeper into the spiritual life.  We need Lent in order to experience Easter in all its fullness.  We need that time to prepare and do the spiritual work required of us.

Spiritual preparation includes prayer, scripture reading, personal reflection and awareness, discernment, holy listening, journaling, and holy reading.  That's true for a trip to Israel or Lent.  So now that much of the logistics and physical preparations have been completed, it's time to turn to the spiritual.  Time to engage in spiritual preparation for the pilgrimage ahead...the pilgrimage to Israel and the pilgrimage of Lent.

How are you preparing yourself spiritually for Lent?

Which Caterpillar Are You?



Transformation



A small, earthbound, slow moving caterpillar inches its way along the branch of the tree, munching on the leaves as he crawls along.  Life is OK.  He was surviving.  He eventually finds his best friend, another small earthbound, slow moving caterpillar inching his way along the branch of the tree, munching on leaves as he crawls along.  They talk about the weather, about the tenderness of the leaves, and other such things important to caterpillars.  One of the caterpillars finally got up the courage to say what was on his mind, “So, what do you think about this cocoon thing?”  “Oh, I don’t like it at all,” replied the other caterpillar.  “I heard once you go in, that’s it.  As a caterpillar you die.  You are all cramped up in the tiny space and you start to change and it hurts and its dark.  I’m not going to do it.  How about you?” 

“I don’t know,” answered the first caterpillar.  “They say that what happens is really amazing. And that you can fly and be all colorful.  I’d love to know what it feels like to fly.  I don’t like the thought of being in a cocoon, but I think that afterward, life could be way better.  It’ll be hard and scary, I know.  But I hear that it’s worth it.  I think I might try it.”  Trusting the process of transformation, that caterpillar entered into the cocoon, giving up life as he knew it, and after some painful and scary times, emerged from that cocoon as a beautiful butterfly, floating along the air, living a life he had never dreamed possible.  The other caterpillar remained a small earthbound slow moving creature inching his way along the branch of the tree, munching on the leaves as he crawled along.

Transformation.  The process of dying in order to live.  As this Lenten season begins, we are reminded that God is all about transformation.  In Christ, we are a new creation.  The old is gone and a new life has begun.  But being inside the cocoon is scary, dark, painful, and uncertain.  New life begins in the dark, uncertain times of our life.  In the operating room, in the loneliness, in the doubt, in the trials and tribulations of life.  We worship a God who knows all about this.  Who went through the cocoon of betrayal, mockery, beatings, and crucifixion in order to get to Easter Sunday.  The only way to get to the empty tomb is through the cross.  Jesus asks us to die to ourselves, our ambitions, desires, greed, selfishness, in order to fully live an abundant life in him: a life of love and sacrifice and generosity.  Ponder in this Lenten season whether God is asking you to let a part of you die (a bad habit, over indulgence, frivolous spending, thinking of yourself first) in order for you to truly live.  Yes, it's dark and painful inside that cocoon.  But as the first caterpillar found out: Boy, is it worth it!  Which caterpillar will you be this year?

Recalculating!

I can't imagine how I ever lived without my GPS.  I don't go anywhere without it.  It has been a lifesaver in so many instances.  At the same time, I can't tell you how many times I have made a wrong turn trying to follow my GPS only to hear those words, "Recalculating!"  It means I messed up (again!).  But it also means that this little device is going to help me get back on track, no matter how many "when possible make a u-turn" statements it makes.  Eventually it may take a little longer, but I always get where I intend to go.

Two weeks from today is Ash Wednesday.  In essence, God's Positioning System is telling us to recalculate.  Have you ever been confounded by life?  Confused, lost, without direction. Ever feel like you were always making the wrong choices and going down the wrong path?  We have all gone in some wrong directions, made wrong turns, and gotten off course.  God uses Ash Wednesday as a day to "recalculate."  To take stock of where we are, where we want to be headed, and to make some adjustments in life.  But Ash Wednesday isn't just a way of guilting us into how wrong we have been.  It also helps us to "make a u-turn when possible" and with our faithful obedience, can get us back on the right track.

Wherever you are, go to an Ash Wednesday service this year.  Allow God's Positioning System to recalculate your route in life.  Make some u-turns of repentance of the ways you have strayed.  And get back on the right road this Lenten season.