Whatever this day may bring

On the lunar calendar, it's a new moon (no Twilight reference intended!), it's March, it's daylight savings, it's spring.

On the church calendar, we are in the lenten season. A season of somber anticipation leading to the death and finally the resurrection of our JESUS.

I would say both of these calendars put us in a time of awakening, looking forward to what is coming next.

There is something about spring that compels me to connect with nature, to return to a very physical sense of this earth. The ground is softening, the temperatures rising, the grass greening. During Lent, we look at the last days of JESUS on earth; a very human JESUS (...which leads up to a very beyond-this-earth event). I grabbed a book of meditations for Lent from church a couple weeks ago, and as I read the meditation (below) on the way to work early one morning, I was struck by the last two lines of Bonhoeffer's prayer. Lord, whatever this day may bring, Your name be praised. This meditation encouraged me to cling to a heavenly presence, to let go of the stronghold I have on this earth. To submit my flesh to my spirit...

I Cannot Do This Alone

O God, early in the morning I cry to you.

Help me to pray

And to concentrate my thoughts on you;

I cannot do this alone.

In me there is darkness,

But with you there is light;

I am lonely, but you do not leave me;

I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;

I am restless, but with you there is peace.

In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;

I do not understand your ways,

But you know the way for me...

Restore me to liberty,

And enable me to live now

That I may answer before you and before men.

Lord, whatever this day may bring,

Your name be praised.

Amen.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer