A few weeks ago, we entered another 'waiting' period in the life of the Church. Lent doesn't seem as fun as advent, there's no chocolate calendar for a start! In fact, a lot of people often choose Lent as a time to give up chocolate, and other things that they might find hard.
Lent is a period of over 40 days in the run up to Easter. "What?!" I hear you cry "No, Lent is 40 days long!". Actually no, the period of Lent does not include Sundays, as Sundays are a rest day. This was always my excuse to eat chocolate on the Sunday, though I'm not sure that's really the point of it!! In Lent, we think about the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, getting ready for the huge job he faced. We think about the suffering of the people in the world around us (the original idea of giving up something was to share in that suffering, it has now become wider to the idea of giving up something and putting the money from that towards helping people who suffer) and we also think about our suffering and dark times and where we find God in that.
This year we have seen much suffering and darkness all around us. There are scars that will last a long time. I still feel anxious hearing ambulance sirens or seeing them parked up by a house and I still struggle to watch anything too intense on TV because I just don't have headroom to process it!
The last few days have seemed to have a bit of a shift in them. Both my girls are back in nursery and school (with mixed emotions from us all), my parents who I haven't seen since last year have had a letter to book their vaccinations and I am slowly beginning to hope that brighter times may be coming, although worrying what that might look like!
In my 2 1/2 hrs of child free time this morning, I went for a walk on the beach (ON MY OWN!!). There have been a lot of storms out at sea recently, and with lockdown, the beach cleaning tractor isn't on it's regular patrol. We have had some amazing people out, picking up the litter that has been washed in, but there is now pile apon pile of drying/rotting seaweed. It's so unusual that I had to go down onto the sand and walk by it. It was a pretty big wondering time, because in places, there seemed to be no path through. Once I got out the other side though, the beach was wide and clear.
I'm going to take the metaphor and relate this to how life (and Lent) is feeling for me/us right now. The storm may be over but there is so much to sift through, to clean and clear. Who knows, in all that stuff, we may find treasures and we may also find things that are too broken to be of use. It will be a painful, tiring, and messy time but it will have its end eventually.
For me, I'm holding onto my faith and that clear horizon just on the other side
PS, I haven't given up chocolate this year. I figured God would understand!
Fran
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