Jesus leads us in new directions
An increasingly popular item is the GPS (Global Positioning System). Using satellite technology, this instrument tells us where we are on the planet. It’s somewhat like that arrow on signs in malls that points to “You are here.”
A GPS can be a valuable instrument in helping travelers avoid getting lost. As one who travels frequently, I now have a GPS in my car. Though fascinated by what it can do, I still get lost. That’s life. At least it’s my life, and maybe yours, too.
We get lost. As we hustle through our days, often dealing with way too much, we may at times discover that we in some ways are lost or have lost that which matters most – the people, a purpose, our dreams – or have lost touch with our true selves, the unique person God created us to be. A loss too great to let be.
It is not only possible but likely this will happen to differing degrees as we journey. That’s why Lent is for us. It is the season when we are specifically invited to use the holy and helpful practices of the church – prayer, self-examination, repentance – to see more clearly where we are, or aren’t.
In the spirit of repentance (turning around), we are invited to reconsider and return, listening to our deepest desires and living in the holy hope Jesus gives us.
Reconsider and return. In these days of high profile politics, I am reminded that Thomas Paine considered modern republican democracy “superior to all other types of government not because it guarantees consensus or even ‘good’ decisions, but because it enables citizens to reconsider their judgments about the quality and unintended consequences of those decisions . . . to think twice and to say no, even to policies to which they once consented.” To turn around.
To Jesus the lost were important above all else. He told stories about sheep and coins to illustrate the point. But well beyond that, he lived his life purposefully to lead the lost, his beloved, to a love too deep to describe and life too full to contain.
That hasn’t changed, but we may have to – change our direction, even turn around – to see this truth more clearly and to live this life more fully.
The invitation to a holy Lent is for us, all of us. And it doesn’t even require a GPS.
