Getting Stretched into Shape

We are being stretched by the challenges that extend us and strengthened by the storms that beat upon us. Lent is coming, but it feels like we are already in it.

Pre-Lent is a bit of a an enigma, yet I find myself preparing for the time of preparation.

Lent represents a lengthening of days, with hope of renewal, with sorrow for our offenses to God and others, with the joy of repentance and reconciliation toward God and others, with fresh commitment to give our lives in a cause greater than ourselves, in a holy relationship of trust that envelops and enlarges us.

We turn ourselves, with Jesus, toward Jerusalem and the cross, we position our hearts and lives for service. 

We are getting ready for a storm. We are in a storm.

That storm is shaping us. God is working His purposes out in us as we stand through the storms of life and history.

John Wesley said, ""There are many men who take some pleasure in knowing God's will and word, and yet do not conform their lives to it."

Let us conform our lives to our calling.

It will not be mere cultural Christianity or institutional conformity, but radical vitality that follows Jesus into the streets and walks among the broken, wounded, oppressed, and robotic souls sucked dry of life, but living on. It will breath life, justice, peace, and passion into stoic statues of stalwart saints-to-be, reviving and enlivening. It will keep us on the edge and expand us, lengthen us, with the days for all our days.

Watch out! This is some ride! There is rough weather ahead, but you are ready and you are marked for redemption, chosen for significance, and called to be part of something bigger than yourself.

 

By the way, he tells the conclusion of the sweater story later ... READ IT HERE.