And so it is for us...

This is a reading from a Lent/Easter devotional I've had for a few years.
I write in my books as a general habit. This one my only note is next to the title: "Wow."

Ash Wednesday 2009

Living Lent
Barbara Cawthorne Crafton

We didn’t even know what moderation was. What it felt like. We didn’t just work: we inhaled our jobs, sucked them in, became them. Stayed late, brought work home – it was never enough, though, no matter how much time we put in.

We ordered things we didn’t need from the shiny catalogues that came to our houses: we ordered three times as much as we could use, and then we ordered three times as much as our children could use.


We didn’t just eat: we stuffed ourselves. We had gained only three pounds since the previous year, we told ourselves. Three pounds is not a lot. We had gained about that much in each of the twenty-five years since high school. We did not do the math.


We redid living rooms in which the furniture was not worn out. We threw away clothing that was merely out of style.


We felt that it was important to be good to ourselves, and that this meant that it was dangerous to tell ourselves no. About anything, ever. Repression of one’s desires was an unhealthy thing. I work hard, we told ourselves. I deserve a little treat. We treated ourselves every day.


There were times, coming into the house from work or waking early when all was quiet, when we felt uneasy about the sense of entitlement that characterized all our days. When we wondered if fevered overwork and excess of appetite were not two sides of the same coin – or rather, two poles between which we madly slalomed. Probably yes, we decided at these times. Suddenly we saw it all clearly: I am driven by my creatures – my schedule, my work, my possessions, my hungers. I do not drive them; they drive me. Probably yes. Certainly yes. This is how it is. We arose and did twenty sit-ups. The next day the moment had passed; we did none.


After moments like that, we were awash in self-contempt. You are weak. Self-indulgent. You are spineless about work and about everything else. You set no limits. You will become ineffective. We bridled at that last bit, drew ourselves up to our full heights, insisted defensively on our competence, on the respect we were due because of all our hard work. We looked for others whose lives were similarly overstuffed; we found them. “This is just the way it is,” we said to one another on the train, in the restaurant. “This is modern life. Maybe some people have time to measure things out by teaspoonfuls.” Our voices dripped contempt for those people who had such time. We felt oddly defensive, though no one had accused us of anything. But not me. Not anyone who has a life. I have a life. I work hard. I play hard.


When did the collision between our appetites and the needs of our souls happen? Was there a heart attack? Did we get laid off from work, one of the thousand certified as extraneous? Did a beloved child become a bored stranger, a marriage fall silent and cold? Or, by some exquisite working of God’s grace, did we just find the courage to look the truth in the eye and, for once, not blink? How did we come to know that we were dying a slow and unacknowledged death? And that the only way back to life was to set all our packages down and begin again, carrying with us only what we really needed?


We travail. We are heavy laden. Refresh us, O homeless, jobless, possession-less Savior. You came naked, and naked you go. And so it is for us. So it is for all of us.

Playing Catch-Up

Not been feeling the blogging for a while. Life has felt a little hectic. But here are some truly random thoughts... Many of these bullet points could have been their own posts - but I am feeling - how you say - lazy.

• Had a chance to worship last week at seminary chapel (at LCS). It sure is fun to go to Lincoln when I'm not in school. You know what else is fun? Starting a song only to be blown back by the volume of voices singing along with you. Man, those people can sing. We did a song that I've only used as a choir piece before - "Instruments of Your Peace." It's based on the prayer of St. Francis - and worked really well corporately. (I also found a version by Kendall Payne on a worship album of hers. Who knew she had a worship album?)
• Found a new blog - Sojourn - a church community in Louisville, Kentucky. They are one of those old-meets-new places that makes me very intrigued. Their worship albums (including their Advent one) are good. Also interesting - the Open Sourcebook - an online collection of new liturgical writings/service elements.
• Josh and I had an awesome weekend in Geneva, Illinois a few weekends back. The bed & breakfast where we stayed inspired my visual artist side to venture out of hiding. You can see some photos on facebook. (Photography is the only safe visual arts medium for me. Until Rebekah teaches me how to throw pottery, anyways...)
• Have had some great, challenging conversations with Melissa lately about taking risks versus playing it safe. Goes along with the current theme to our worship services - do we want safe, comfortable lives - or do we want lives that are used by God to do something bigger than we could do on our own?
• Last Sunday we used a series of G.K. Chesterton quotes in worship, from his book, Orthodoxy. I was reminded as I was skimming over the book that Rich Mullins clearly read Chesterton. In the opening pages of Orthodoxy, he says, setting up the book as his own snapshots and attempts to describe his view of God, "I will not call it my philosophy; for I did not make it. God and humanity made it; and it made me." (Which reminds me of the lyrics to RM's "Creed." Good stuff.)

Hopefully more, less-random thoughts to come. (I hope to blog a little bit during Lent.)

In the meantime, I am praying and waiting not so patiently for the arrival of Baby Sandel!!