[re]imagine Lent: 3/1/2023
We encourage you to sign up for the 40-40-40 Lenten Challenge, a challenge with our partner Southeastern Iowa Synod to participate in Lenten practices, including these daily devotions. Just signing up counts as participation! More info here.
“So Abram went, as the Lord had told him…”
One of my favorite Disney songs in the last few years comes from Frozen II, where Princess Anna is facing an unknown future without her sister, Queen Elsa, and her constant companion, Olaf. She is grieving them and unsure of what comes next, saying, “the life I knew is over…” Yet in her grief and uncertainty, she also boldly declares that she just needs to “do the next right thing.”
How much did Abram lose when he responded to God’s command to leave his home and family, trusting that ‘the land God would show him’ would provide a future? I imagine the grief was palpable, and the fear great. Yet, in faith, Abram did the next right thing. He took the first step, then the next, and then the next. He couldn’t see the future, didn’t know what it held, but he knew who held it.
Whether it’s in our individual life or a shared life in community, I think we often find ourselves in situations like this, looking at an unknown or bleak future. ‘So Abram went’ seems so simple but it encompasses a vast statement of faith, each step a witness that faith often looks like taking the next right step, even if you’re not sure where the path leads. This Lent, maybe we can begin to imagine the places God is asking us to go. Even if we can’t see the whole picture, or know where the path leads, we know that God holds it, and that through the Spirit we have the courage and faith to take the next, right step.
Prayer
God of everlasting promise, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus you have called me to a life of grace and faith. By your Spirit empower me to believe and so believing to act, that living in your salvation I might leave behind all that no longer gives life and step into a future you are calling into existence. Join my faith and gifts with others in my life so that together our faith becomes your gift living in the world. Amen.
Journal Prompt
Lent calls us to practices of faith. Reflect on your own life of faith. When has God called you to take a step into something new? How did you respond? Or, ask yourself if God is currently calling you, like Abram, to leave something behind so that you can start something new, even if that new thing has yet to be revealed. How does that call make you feel?
Week Two Devotions by Rev. Erika Uthe, uthe@seiasynod.org