Monday, February 22, 2016

lenten poems: a note

Pau, France, 2016.


An increasingly beautiful aspect of this Lenten poems discipline has been the decision to follow where the Spirit leads in this season. Which means the poems are not always a direct response to Scripture or to some specifically-defined Lenten reading. Sometimes they are instead inspired by a sermon I've heard, by a conversation with a friend, by a shadowed scene that played out for only seconds on the wall across the street from the window I look through while seated at my desk. All of life is the Lord's. Lent is offering a chance to learn to be especially present to the Holy Spirit's whispers in all of life's moments, not just the ones overtly deemed to be spiritual.

I did not expect all of this when I settled on this discipline for this season. But by freeing myself from responding only to my "devotions" (to what I read), the discipline has plunged me more deeply into a posture of listening all throughout the day: What will today's inspiration be? And yet, by interacting deeply with Scripture throughout these days, all of the listening is yet rooted there.

Whisper, Lord, whisper. Let there be life. And may it be good.

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