By Sue Magrath
It’s Lent. Again. And it’s appointment season. Again. Will you be staying? Will you be going? Now that the mask mandate has been lifted, how will that change worship? Do we still need to wear masks in church? And when, for heaven’s sake, can we sing again? Will this be the third year in a row that we don’t get to sing, “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today?” Or will the clouds part and a voice from heaven resound with the words, “Let my beloved children sing!”?
Breathe in and breathe out.
Things seem to be trending in a positive direction, but we’ve been here before and had to backtrack. So many questions, so much uncertainty. Not to mention the humanitarian and existential crisis in Ukraine! We are pummeled from all sides by the not knowing. What are we to do? How do we handle this sense of floating in outer space with nothing to ground us?
Breathe in and breathe out.
Perhaps, like Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, we can put one foot in front of the other, tread the path God lays out before us, trusting that God goes before, behind, and beside us. Because of Jesus, the cross is no longer a symbol of death and shame but of transformation and redemption. Jesus knew how the story would end. And how it would begin again.
Breathe in and breathe out.
This is the promise for us that for every season of uncertainty and fear, there is also a season of new beginnings. And so, in this time of turmoil within and without, let us trust in the new thing God promised in Isaiah 43. “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
Breathe in and breathe out.
May it be so.
Sue Magrath is a spiritual director and the author of several books. Her previous career spanned fourteen years in the mental health field. She is passionate about clergy wellness and has authored the book, My Burden is Light: A Primer for Clergy Wellness.
