Sunday, March 1st, has a special significance for me for two very good reasons: 1) it is my birthday, and 2) it is the First Sunday of Lent. I will celebrate them both, again for similar reasons.
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Lent is an old word that refers to the lengthening of daylight hours and the approach of springtime. For our churches, Lent is a spiritual springtime -- a time to prepare the ground of our hearts, to clear the weeds that impede our spiritual growth so that the seeds of the Word of God can take root in us. Lent is a 45-day period that runs through to Palm Sunday (April 5 this year) and is followed by Good Friday (April 10) and Easter (April 12).
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I always set aside some time on March 1st to reflect on the ways in which I have hopefully blossomed since my last birthday and invariably in a flood of recollection, all the things that matter in life come flooding back, enabling me to then move ahead with renewed energy, sense of purpose and hope. For me March 1st is a natural springboard to Easter with its simple message..."Come back to life!"
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Each of us has a resurrection story to tell (hardship overcome, health restored, conflict resolved, death of a loved one), a wonderful blooming of the soul and spirit where before there had been despair and hurt and only the faintest glimmer of hope.
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Easter is frequently caught up in complicated theologies that need not distract us. We need only to focus on the message. Easter asks us to believe in unseen possibilities. It asks us to trust that there is some reality beyond the one that we understand at present time. It asks us to have faith in something that we may not fully comprehend. Faith is like that, isn't it.
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The Easter Story reminds us that life is precious because it is so fleeting. The certainty of death makes life all the more precious because under its shadow we tend to search harder and harder for life.
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Reading and hearing each year the story of the death of Jesus on the cross at Calvary, always seems poignant to me. We know how the story is going to end and it makes all the moments before it all the more significant. Even in the shadow of death, Easter is saying to us: "Come back to life!"
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There are some things about the Easter Story that are a mystery to us and we will never have all the answers. We are promised immortality, but is it through bodily resurrection or resurrection of the spirit? It is entirely up to us to figure out what we believe and to have faith in that belief.
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May we all give a little more thought to the message of Easter over the course of the next month, embracing the preciousness of our existence and coming back to life.
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FOOTNOTE
Re the "apology" announcement below: I am still struggling with the mysterious loss of three months' worth of post items, November 28/08 to February 28/09, some of which can never be recaptured. I get "key happy" at times and may be responsible for what has happened, only time and further analysis will tell. If you missed my series on "Feathers" and another on "turning grains of sand into pearls" and a special story of intrigue surrounding the secret life of former Canadian spy Kay Snelgrove, it is truly regretful. In total I lost more than 50 items that were posted in December, January and February and I was so discouraged for a while this afternoon that I seriously considered discontinuing Wrights Lane and giving up blogging altogether. I forced myself to reconstruct the above item on Lent that was also lost this morning and in so doing I am happy to report that dicktheblogster has come back to life!
