Towards the Throne of Grace
The season of Lent is a time of “bright sadness.” We spend forty days in preparation and reflection, in a penitent posture, with our hearts fixed on the coming joy of new life at Easter. We fast and pray for six days of the week and then celebrate on the seventh. Our world is meant to be dim yet punctuated by the brilliant light of hope. Lent is an odd and beautiful season of life when we fully acknowledge to ourselves and to God where we have been malformed by the world and where we seek to be perfectly formed by the grace of God.
We think about Lent as a time of spiritual and corporeal discipline – practicing holiness of soul and body. As we prepare for the coming of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, I invite you to take one hour away from the world. During this hour, turn off your devices and steal away from your obligations and the noise in your life. Sit with yourself and with God. Examine the state of your soul. Ask yourself, “Where have I separated myself from God? Where has my path diverged from the path God has laid in front of me?” Then, sit and pray quietly, journal or sing. Do whatever feels like communing with God for you.
Friends in Christ, the forty days of Lent are a time to consider our own dimness of soul and the brightness of soul to which we aspire through the Holy Spirit’s gracious guidance. How will you live during the coming forty days of Lent? What will you shed? What will you take on? Above all, Lent is a time for thoughtfulness and honesty, for grace and hope.
George Herbert (1593-1633) was a priest in the Church of England and a poet. His poem entitled “Discipline,” is a vivid prayer that perfectly captures the “bright sadness” of the Lenten season. Part of that poem is printed here:
Throw away thy rod,
Throw away thy wrath:
O my God,
Take the gentle path.
For my heart’s desire
Unto thine is bent:
I aspire
To a full consent.
Not a word or look
I affect to own,
But by book,
And thy book alone.
Though I fail, I weep:
Though I halt in pace,
Yet I creep
To the throne of grace.
As we approach the throne of grace – the joy and hope of Easter’s resurrection – we must look inward and gaze at our own souls. How is God urging you to live a holy Lent?
Grace and peace,
Pastor Molly
