And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. [Mark 1:13 (ESV)]
As I pondered my goals for this year’s Lenten practice, I remembered Alica Britt Chole’s suggestion to “consider Lent as less of a project and more of a sojourn.” While we often encounter the word ”sojourn” in Scripture, it’s not a word typically used today. Although the basic meaning of gûr, the Hebrew word translated at sojourn, is to “live, settle, dwell,” gûr usually included the sense of it being a temporary or transient stay. Typically, a sojourner was someone living outside their clan or a noncitizen in a strange place. Because of famine, Israel sojourned in Egypt for 430 years and, because of their disobedience, they sojourned forty years in the desert before entering the Promised Land. It is Jesus’ 40-day sojourn in the wilderness before entering His public ministry that is remembered in Lent.
The usual question prior to Ash Wednesday is, “What are you giving up for Lent?” and the question following Easter is, “How did you do?” If someone else doesn’t ask it, we ask it of ourselves. Were we successful in refraining from sweets, social media, criticism, shopping, or whatever we gave up? Did we meet our goal of reading the four gospels or memorizing 40 Bible verses? Was our commitment to a daily random act of kindness kept? With its clear start and end dates, Lent easily can turn into an assigned forty-day project. It’s tempting to look at our Lenten practice as we might a New Year’s resolution—we set an objective, create a plan, track our progress, and evaluate our success or failure. God, however, is a relationship, not an obligation or duty! With their thinking that salvation lay in strict observance of the oral and written Law, the Pharisees turned God into a job; we mustn’t make the same mistake with Lent.
If, however, we view Lent as a sojourn rather than an assignment, it becomes an experience instead of a chore. Rather than an objective that must be completed successfully on the 40th day, Lent becomes a temporary journey in the wilderness with God. Rather than 40 days of trying to meet goals, it becomes a blessed season of retreat—a time to hear God’s voice in the silence of the wilderness—a time to feel His presence in the stunning colors of the desert sunset, the stark contrast between sun and shadow, the enormous saguaros cactus with its upturned arms, and the wildflowers determined to grow in this parched and barren land. Without a timeline, we can pause to taste the nopales and fruit of the prickly pear and look for road runners and Gila monsters. Unhindered by city lights, we see God’s majesty in the spectacular view of the stars. Granted, we probably won’t be retreating to the desert but, when we think of Lent as a sojourn with God in the wilderness, it can become a close encounter with Him rather than a job for Him!
Describing Lent as a journey of “bright sadness,” Orthodox Reverend Alexander Schmemann says, “The purpose of Lent is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to ‘soften’ our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the spirit, to experience the hidden ‘thirst and hunger’ for communion with God.” Through fasting, prayer, study, and reflection, may we grow closer to God as we sojourn through the wilderness of this Lenten season into the joy of the Resurrection!
“How was work today?” asked the wife in the Born Loser comic strip (drawn by Chip Sansom). Her husband answered, “Horrendous!” adding, “It feels so good that it’s over, I’m almost glad it happened!” Having had times when my prayer was simply, “Lord, just get me through this!” I understand. Sometimes, life seems so challenging and exhausting that we’re willing to settle for merely getting through it. That, dear friend, is setting the bar far too low. God has better plans for us than just getting by and none of us are born losers.
Joe Btfsplk was a character in Al Capp’s Lil’ Abner comic strip. With a last name that sounds likes what’s known as a “raspberry” or “Bronx cheer,” the poor man had a dark cloud of perpetual bad luck hanging over his head. Btfsplk no longer appears in the comics but I think his dark cloud of misfortune has settled over the head of a dear friend I’ll call JB (in honor of Capp’s luckless character). Since JB’s retirement, if something could go wrong, it has and, as soon as one challenge resolves, another one appears. When I saw the photos from his most recent mishap, JB looked as if he’d been tossed around in a giant rock tumbler filled with broken glass and boulders.
Several years ago, two friends joined the ranks of widowhood within a week of one another. Because her husband surrendered to cancer several months earlier by stopping all treatment, one woman was not surprised when she joined the club. The other woman, however, went to bed a wife and awoke the next morning to find herself a widow. Despite his looking the picture of health, her husband, having suffered a fatal stroke while she slept, lay dead on the kitchen floor.
Psalm 119, the longest of the psalms, is a song in praise of the Word of God. Since we don’t read this psalm in its original Hebrew, we fail to appreciate its intricate construction. Each of its twenty-two sections begin with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in sequence. Each of the eight verses in those twenty-two sections begin with the letter that introduced it. For example, the first word of the first section begins with alef, as do the next seven verses. In the second section, every line begins with beth. The psalm continues that way up to the 22nd (and last) section where every line begins with the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, tav. 
We enjoy walking in the local Botanical Garden as well as the nearby Corkscrew Swamp. Although both offer plenty of photo ops and pleasant strolls in God’s creation, the Garden offers more color and variety than a swamp any day. Nevertheless, as much as I enjoy the Garden’s beauty and serenity, I feel more at home in the swamp.
Devotions of the Heart 