2nd Sunday in Lent

Our readings for the 2nd Sunday in Lent:

1. Genesis 12: 1-4a
2. Psalms 33: 4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
3. 2 Timothy 1: 8b-10
4. Matthew 17: 1-9

• Don't wait for me
• Ultimately, God's call offers freedom to step out of the familiar, the known, into a much larger world in which the horizons recede, a much larger world in which we can become truly visible, truly prophetic, truly alive.  We must never accept safety and security if it comes at the expense of that freedom.
• How have you become more free, more creative, more daring as you have gone through life?
• What have you had to give up/shed along the way in order to embrace that freedom?
• Have you broken any hearts along the way on that quest?
• Would you do it again? 

• Finding your hope
• Hope is not so much for something, like hoping that your team takes the World Series, as it is hope in someone.  True hope is grounded in the faithfulness of God.  True hope relies on faith and love to give it life, just as hope brings joy and vitality to the other two.  They form a trinity of virtue.
• Have you ever lost hope?
• What brought that on?
• How did you get through that dark season in your life?
• How did that chapter change you?
• If you could go back to the you when you had lost hope, what would you tell yourself? 

• Self-induced hardship
• More often than not, stress and burnout are not the result of working too hard, but working at something that we were never meant to work at.  By contrast, true joy can be found in the strangest of places and circumstances when we are there in pursuit of holiness.
• What were you born to do?
• How did you find that calling in your life?
• Do you think that our calling in life, our essence ever changes?
• How did you know when you had found your calling? 

• Savoring the moment
• Mountain top experiences are good, and often needed.  But they become an obstacle if we try to cling to them.
• What are some mountaintop experiences that you have had through the years?
• How/when did you have to descend from that mountaintop?
• How did that mountaintop experience impact/influence the rest of your life?
• Did you ever return to that same mountaintop to try to rekindle the old feelings?
• How did that go for you? 

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God calling me to be more creative?
• Who do I actually hope in??
• Am I being faithful to who I truly am??
• How can I be better at savoring, really living in the moment?

Leaving for Parts Unknown

A coward dies a thousand deaths.

A brave man dies but once.

 

Both end up just as dead.

But the brave make a difference.

 

Lord,

 

Don't let me let my fear of less than greatness -

Keep me from trying at all.

 

Help me to have the courage to leave the familiar

The comfortable

The secure

 

Behind in favor of following you more closely.

 

Give me eyes for the wide open spaces,

The unexpected turn of trail.

 

Help me learn to sing with the brooks.

Teach me to find home wherever you take me.

 

Teach me to find peace,

Not in the certainty of what today will hold.

But in the certainty that you hold me.

 

Let me measure the span of my life -

Not by how many breaths I take.

But by what takes my breath away.

 

Shalom!