A TIME TO COURSE CORRECT

From our first breath to our last, we seek to connect with others in a deep and meaningful way.  We long for the assurance that we are accepted and important. Life’s journey is all about this connectedness; about knowing that we have a place in the world and that our place matters.

Yet, the journey is hard.  The human condition makes the strongest of us weak and our good intentions flawed.

We compete with our siblings for the attention of our parents and then, as we grow older, we push those same parents away, full of pride in the prevailing wisdom of our age.

We ignorantly (and sometimes on purpose) hurt the person we promised before God to love and cherish, and the pain thereof can linger like an open wound between us.

We fumble the rearing of the babies we so achingly love, as the human condition is passed on from generation to generation.

We lean into our personal bias.

We take control and lose control.

We walk confidently in some areas and we misstep painfully in others.

What we see as our triumphs sometimes are our hidden failures.

And, in all of this, we protect our fragile heart with walls of pride and thereby unwittingly break the connection we so desperately long for.

But it does not have to be this way.

We are created to be like God who is deeply relational and eternally connected. Like magnets, we are drawn to our fellow human creatures by a force unseen but deeply felt.

As the Church worldwide enters the season of Lent, may we each pause and reflect on our personal connectedness.

Reflect on our family and close friends.

Reflect on our neighbors and colleagues.

Reflect on

our city. 

our country.

our world.

Lent is a time for reflection and repentance. Like an annual medical checkup, it is a time to test our spiritual health.

How well do we love?

My prayer is that we, Christ followers, lay aside our personal pride and be willing to course correct.

Our world depends on it.

“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

– Romans 12:10

May we think on these things!