Sweet Sayings

All the major religions set aside special days or weeks as occasions for special reflection and growth.

For Christianity, Lent is such a time. As we anticipate new growth with the coming of spring, Lent calls us to reflect on what gets in the way of new growth in us. What deadening winter thing hinders the budding of springtime vitality?

For me, this Lent is a time when I join the Prestons and others on a pilgrimage to Antigua, Guatemala, for a surgical mission. We will spend the week aiding the new, healthy growth in the "wintering" bodies of the local population.

While many of us are Christian, the team leaders are Jewish, adding to the significance of our Lenten journey. God acts in many ways and with many forms to bring about the new life that he wills for us all. And when we begin to think that we are entitled to special privileges from God because we are God's special people, he uses others to "put us in our place" and remind us that we are just one small possibility among a multitude of ways that God works.

I ask your prayers for the three of us, and for the team as a whole. Pray that in addition to being a help to others, we may focus more fully on what God would have us do and be. And-incidentally-offer that Lenten prayer for yourself and our church!

Gratefully,

Pastor Paul