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February 2010

Yes, we’re about to enter the season of Lent, a season that comes with a wide variety of meanings for folks. Maybe it’s a time of reflection for you. Maybe it’s a time of doing something extra or of giving up something. Maybe it’s an uncomfortable time that you think puts too much emphasis on our failings. Maybe it doesn’t mean much at all to you.

That’s the beauty of our traditions in Christianity. They have been shaped by 2,000 years of experiences and cultures and so they come with many layers.  Here’s one more way to think about Lent in 2010.  It is from an article by Lindsay Armstrong, a pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. She writes about Lent as a time to recognize our limits.

It’s not that most of us need a lot of reminders about our limits. We pretty much know what they are. It’s that we need to come to terms with those limits and figure out ways to let them serve us rather than have them beat us down.

She starts out with Psalm 91, a beautiful Psalm that comes into play at the beginning of Lent, a Psalm that at first doesn’t seem to be about limits. If you are familiar with the hymn “On Eagle’s Wings,” you’ll recognize some of the phrases in this Psalm – “You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty” know that you can trust in God. You trust that God will deliver them “from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence” and give you refuge under God’s wings.  No matter how many will fall at your side, God will protect you. God’s angels will bear you up so “you will not dash your foot against a stone.”

Sounds wonderful. Sounds impossible. We all have experienced times in our lives or the lives of those we love when God seemed far, far away. Just ask the people of Haiti if this Psalm makes any sense to them right now.  And yet what this Psalm tells us is that God’s love for us has no limits. We are limited by our humanity, which can fall short of what we would hope.

Our limits lead us to ponder where God fits in the whole picture. Daniel Migliore is a theologian who has written a wonderful little book called God’s Power and the gods of Power. He writes: “The question of God and God’s power is raised in …situations in which we experience both the possibilities and the limitations of our own power in a world of multiple and sometimes hostile powers.”

So for me this Lent, a question I will be pondering is the limits in my life and what that tells me about God. Are there limits to God’s love, to God’s power? Are there limits to my belief in God? How do I trust in God even when things are going wrong? How do I trust in myself when I know I cannot do everything I would hope to do? How do I trust in others when I cannot be sure they will be there for me?

I invite you to join me on this journey.