Lent with Lazarus ~

 

This week, I am weaving together the narrative from John 11 and quotes from Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman into a beautiful tapestry.  Yesterday, we held the question, what makes you feel fully alive?  We acknowledge the coming to life of Lazarus as one way the Spirit can stir within us in new ways.  I wonder have you ever had a moment where life felt like a dead end, but then there was an exit ramp you had not noticed previously?  There is the fully alive of Martha’s honest, heartfelt conversation with Jesus.  We can feel fully alive when we share our thoughts and ideas with each other.  Such sacred conversations are important in our lives and can transform us.  We can feel fully alive when like Mary we are fiercely faithful.  While Martha’s faith compelled her forward to go out to Jesus, Mary stayed back.  Mary lingered, just as Jesus did.  Sometimes fierce faithfulness forges forward, other times our faithfulness is a pregnant pause to ponder where God would have us go or what God would have us say.  You don’t have to race to return every email or text.  You can breathe, wait, let God get a word in edgewise before your fingers start typing a stream of conscious response. 

 

There are moments when we can feel lost or wandering in this world, especially now.  This makes me think of a quote from Rev. Dr. Howard Thurman, “There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves. The first is 'Where am I going?' and the second is 'Who will go with me?'”

 

I pray you will let those two questions in Thurman’s quote sink, sing, and simmer on your soul this day in ways that help you feel alive.  May those questions help free you, let God’s liberating love loose in your life to unbind you.  I pray these questions will stir new directions and roll back stones that seem to be blocking your way right now or show you a pathway you had not notice.  May you and I continue to be alive in a world that longs for each of us to let our lights shine this day.