Lent, wilderness & getting free together
Last month, Kevin and I spent two days away at a little retreat space just outside of Savannah. In the absence of wifi and TVs, we were encouraged to unplug from technology and tune in to the beauty of creation. We looked for deer, wandered in the woods, watched the sunrise, and listened to the birds’ songs. It was far from the roughing it many people do in similar places (their cabins and quaint and comfortable!), but it was a kind of wilderness, and the wilderness is always a formative place.
WIthout so many distractions and so much input - noise, headlines, voices telling me what I must do right now(!) - I noticed sensations that normally get drowned out. I heard my body telling me when I was hungry or tired or in need of movement. We heard the tiniest of creatures announcing their presence. There was more room to listen to what is rumbling around our souls and to be reminded of what’s essential and what’s not.
It’s no wonder wilderness has been such a powerful place of epiphany, encounter and discovery for humans throughout history. Departing our normal rhythms and routines and learning to go without something we didn’t even realize we were dependent upon is disorienting to say the least, but it also reconnects us with another way of being - a more deeply human way.
Wilderness is what we are invited into during the season of Lent, the *40 days (*it’s actually 46, but Sundays are “exempt”) between Ash Wednesday and Easter. 40 is significant in Scripture. It’s the number of years the Hebrew community spent wandering in the wilderness getting free from the greed, overwork and power-hungry way of the Egyptian empire. In the harshness of wilderness, they struggled to learn trust in enough for each day and how to be led by Yahweh, who was a lot less like Pharaoh and more of a guiding Presence.
40 is also the number of days Jesus was sent into the desert by Spirit. He fasted, prayed, and resisted the temptation to choose popularity, top-down power, or proving his worth. He emerged clear that he was about tending to the wounds of those on the bottom of society and overturning the tables that kept them stuck there.
How are we in the need of this kind of wilderness? As we face this wild & uncertain time in our nation’s life and as we continue to move through our theme of “weaving our way toward wholeness”, what has an unhealthy hold on us that we could use some distance from? What habit or fixation or attachment or addiction is inviting our fasting and what could we feast on instead - not out of piety or to make a performance of it - but out of the hope that something new and necessary is possible here.
Last night, we gathered on Overalls Farm to begin moving through this season together. The ritual of receiving ashes to remind us that we are dust and to dust we will return is a powerful one. We are mortal, meaning we are meant to live within limits. How will we spend this one brief, wild and precious life? We can spend it bound to things that harm or hurt or we can keep getting free. I look forward to continuing the journey toward more freedom, not just for our sakes, but for the sake of everyone and everything.
[Here’s a short list to get you thinking about how you might move through this season. It’s never too late to begin - whether it’s 40 days or 4 days, practices can form us. We gave out journals last night for people to write personal reflections on the practices and prompts we’ll be offering on Sundays (or whatever else you want to use them for!). We’ll have them on hand each Sunday during Lent as well].