A Season to Linger
Lent is truly a journey on the “road less traveled.” Our destination is the cross and then, and only then, the resurrection. We cannot get to Easter without first going through Good Friday. It’s a strange season because it culminates with both sorrow and joy. We are overwhelmed by the reality of Jesus’ death, then awed by the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.
So many feelings are wrapped in this season. Chuck Poole writes, “It makes you wonder if so much joy has ever landed so near to so much pain. The answer, of course, is yes. It happens this way all the time. Joy and pain have always lived in the same neighborhood, on the same street, at the same address. Holy Week’s compression of deep pain and high joy into small space looks a lot like real life in the real world. There is a lot of pain. But, if there is a lot of pain, there is also a lot of joy.” God sustains us in those seasons of pain and joy, love and loss, success and struggle.
Sadly, the joy sometimes gets lost more easily than the pain—perhaps because pain weighs more than joy. Pain has more gravity than joy has helium. That may be what Georgia writer Lewis Grizzard had in mind when he said, “Losing feels worse than winning feels good.” So, the temptation is to sacrifice joy on the altar of pain and to avoid Lent entirely because we know it’s only taking us much nearer to Good Friday’s cross.
During Advent, I asked everyone to “amble” instead of rushing to Christmas. What if we linger a little this year during Lent? What if we take the time to slow down, instead of speeding toward Easter? What if we take the time to listen to Jesus’ words, to watch Jesus’ actions, to seek to discover in Christ what is actually our true calling.
What does it look like to linger? Our bodies need for us to learn to take some time, to wait and to exercise patience. Our minds, often running even faster than our feet, also require us to find a few moments to slow down and center ourselves. If we fill our lives with things, we rarely have or take the time to process and understand our experiences. Our minds are running on overdrive. Stress consumes us. Pressures mount all around us. We want quick fixes and immediate solutions to our problems. But sometimes, if we step away from our situation, looking carefully at our lifestyles, and embracing for just a moment the process of patience, we can see more clearly.
The Quakers are a small Christian sect strong in the Northeastern part of the United States. They have certain sayings that seem foreign and even counter-cultural to us, but which reveal a part of their unique perspective. “Don’t just do something; sit there.” Or, “Hurry up and wait.” They believe strongly that their worship involves waiting. They sit silently in an effort to re-center their lives. These Quakers are convinced and convicted that “those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.” For them, the practice of patience is more than some archaic idea from the past, but an essential part of their worship and their lives in a busy, loud and chaotic modern world.
This Lenten season, we can learn from them. We can linger and we can listen. We can worship most joyfully, if we take that road less traveled.
Jesus told his disciples, “Stay awake and watch with me” (Matthew 26:40).
Friends, don’t fall asleep; this will be a special season.
– Chris George, Senior Pastor