How many of you woke up today with a sense of sadness? Our losses are so small compared to what those around the world (and, indeed, the ill in my own city) are experiencing. But to wake and think, “Oooh Saturday!” and then realize my little family can’t go to a nature center, garden or museum, to visit friends, or on a family cake and coffee date to Starbucks. Depending on the weather, we may not even be able to go for a long walk. So we’re facing yet another stir-crazy day in the apartment. And yet, maybe God wants us to meet him in the apartment. He wants us to meet him in the deprivation of normal activities, the ways we feed our thirst for adventure, for connection, for fun. Maybe, just maybe, he’s rooting something solid and sweet down in the dark soil of our altered lives right now. And as his work takes root, we’ll begin to see him more clearly than ever before.
From the devotional (it also has art and music, click on the link to see it):
“Perhaps we find ascetic practices so hard because we only notice what we lose and fail to comprehend all that we gain. You see, in casting other things aside through ascetic practices, we are brought to a place of simplicity, a place where we can finally focus on the one thing that is all that really matters – God Himself.
The presence of God is, like Judith Harris’ beetle, hidden in plain sight. We find Him not by diligent struggle but through the clarity of vision that simplicity gives. He is seen through a glass dimly, but the light can indeed be seen, especially when all other lights – those things that compete for our attention – are extinguished.
Simplicity also helps us to number our days and forces us to confront the illusions of self-importance that we are so prone to erect. When we, like the Queens of Soweto, cease trying to be someone of note, we are then positioned to live a meaningful life. We discover that choosing to live quietly and to work faithfully is what leads to contentment and pleases God. And this is what makes life truly meaningful.
In the process, we discover in this upside-down Kingdom of God that the ones God sees as great are those whom the world so readily dismisses as unimportant. Again, like the beetle, greatness in God’s kingdom is hidden in plain sight. It is found in simplicity, godly contentment, and a heart that treasures Him above all else.
Ascetic practices do not earn us favor with God. They transform us so that we may see the God who is always with us with greater clarity than ever before.”
http://ccca.biola.edu/lent/2020/#day-mar-28
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