The Journey of Belonging

Jesus not only tells us he is the light of the world and that as we follow him we walk in God’s light, he tells us that we are also to be light to this world. The point and purpose of following Jesus is, two fold: we live in God’s light AND we are to shine the divine light of Love so that others can see the Way, too! The means is the goal.

As we make our way closer and closer to Jerusalem and Holy Week, following Jesus to the cross and tomb and beyond, I’m finding it difficult to remain in this Lenten journey and not just skip to the end. How about you? Are you finding it challenging to remain in the journey?

In the movie The Princess Bride, Prince Humperdinck is marrying Buttercup as part of his plot to start a war and gain more power for himself. He doesn’t want to waste time on listening to the priest blather on about true love and ‘mawidge’ because love isn’t his goal, it’s the means to his attempted evil end so he interrupts the priest insisting he skip to the end. (And for those who don’t know the movie (WHAT?!) Humperdink’s plot is thwarted and love wins. The End.)

And so, as we resist the temptation to skip to the end, we encounter the questions: Why do we want to skip to the end and what would we gain by doing so? (Please don’t think I’m accusing you of some secret evil plot, it’s just a funny illustration to assist us all in looking at our motivations because sometimes humor eases the challenge of the tough questions.)

Let’s do a bit of remembering. (Re)read this post on why we do Lent and remember we are only fully, truly, really human with God and each other and that in this season of Lent we are choosing to make more room for the awareness of God’s presence in our lives. Are you finding yourself more aware of God?

Our Lenten journey is to shape us into kingdom people who continuously seek to make more room for the awareness of God’s presence.

The purpose is the journey. The purpose is being.

The purpose is the continuous discovery of belonging in God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, journeying with Jesus in this season and every day, shining the light of God’s love.

Today and tomorrow, I pray that we all clear space for sabbath rest – abiding in God’s presence in the peace and confidence of our belonging. We have plenty of time this next week to talk more about purpose. Be in peace, my journeying friends.