March 19th

Lent

Lent is a time to learn to travel

Light, to clear the clutter

From our crowded lives, and

Find a space, a desert.

Deserts are bleak: no creature

Comforts, only a vast expanse of

Stillness, sharpening awareness of

Ourselves and God.

Uncomfortable places, deserts.

Most of the time we’re tempted to

Avoid them, finding good reasons to

Live lives of ease; cushioned by

Noise from self-discovery,

Clutching at world’s success

To stave off fear.

But if we dare to trust the silence

To strip away our false security,

God can begin to grow his wholeness in us,

Fill up our emptiness, destroy our fears,

Give us new vision, courage for the journey,

And make our desert blossom like a rose.

Ann Lewin