Well, we are halfway through our journey of Lent.  How are you doing?  I have had a few days of backsliding, but I keep pushing forward toward Easter Day.  I have been in the process of filling 40 bags for Lent.  This involves cleaning out stuff to give away, decluttering, and creating space in my life.

I still have 20 bags to go!  No worries, really.  I have plenty I could and should give away.  It is good for me!

One day my husband announced that while I was getting my “rub down” he would make a trip to Costco.  I reacted immediately, ” My RUB DOWN!??”  He said, “Oh whatever that is you go get now and then.”  I thought for a minute.  “Do you mean my MASSAGE?”  Now I don’t think I have ever had the rub down he envisions from his athletic encounters, but I don’t picture it at all like my relaxing, aromatic, spa of bliss!

Feeling somewhat like a wet noodle, I returned home from my massage.  I slithered in through the back door, and “what to my wondering eyes should appear”…

THIRTY ROLES of toilet paper from Costco…such a deal!  There’s just two of us here…I hope that’s enough!  We certainly don’t want to run out during Lent!  Ahhh, but then I looked a little closer.  Sitting atop were 320 SHEETS of Bounce.  Now that puts a whole new perspective to the remaining days of Lent.  We will have a bounce in our step!  God surely has a sense of humor dealing with us fledglings.  We WILL get through Lent, by the grace of God!  Happy Trails!

nk

I think that the time of Lent is meant to disturb us a bit, to jar our thinking and imagining beyond what we now know and affirm, into an unknown possibility.  Some small stone, or even an incredibly large boulder, could be moved out of the way.  Then a leap of faith, like a bolt of lightning out of a tomb, might catapult us into a resurrection!

(Collage created by Nancy Kellond, retreat with Christ UMC, Woodlands, Texas)

Increasingly disturbing and unsettling is the polarization everywhere around us.  Richard Rohr, in his meditation entitled “Trinity and the Law of Three”, speaks of a “binary system”, two things, this or that.  It is a linear view of a single plane and perspective.  There are always two sides, along with some wild hope of unity somewhere in between.  He mentions God as known in the Trinity…Father, Son, and Holy Spirit or Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.  This is a “ternary system”, composed of three parts.  And when the three parts come together, they form a fourth entity, the Trinity.  He uses the illustration of a braid.  Three strands come together and form a braid, something new.

God, as Trinity, is a relationship.  This community transcends the boundaries of two thoughts or opinions into an unleashed possibility of places to connect in spirit and in truth.  Could this be a resurrection?

My grandchildren have discovered the joy of using their creativity to take trash and form something new.  This photo is an example of the “traps” they made out of stuff in the recycling bin.

Travis’ creation on the left is an “alien trap”. Notice he uses love as the inviting attraction for the foreigner.  Out of Callie’s imagination emerged the “Leprechaun trap” as seen on the right.  A lollipop stairway is the lucky lure into a new home of happy faces.

My heart says this is not about two options for a trap.  This is an illustration of what two young creative minds can come up with beyond the predicted normality of childhood play.  Creativity is a gift from God, the Creator.  Our world, our Universe, is in need of creative thinking, an open mind to a “ternary system”, unbound, and set free to the possibility of a resurrection beyond the truths we hold so tightly clenched in our fists.  God has a way of doing a new thing.  Lent is about getting us dressed, making us ready for an Eastering!

nk

Pondering…

What would it mean for us to think beyond two viewpoints into endless possibility?

How are you nurturing the Creative God in you?

 

 

 

For over 30 years as a pastor I have assumed my role in the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  It has always been a special time for me, a worshipful encounter with the grace of God experienced in humility and solemnity.  Yet, this year it contained something more, something deeper.

The sanctuary was full, the soft glow of candlelight illumined the color purple flowing across an altar and down from the cross hung high above.  It was a new place for me and most of the people I did not know.  I took my position at the side aisle of the darkened room.  The ushers gently motioned a flow of persons in my direction.  They formed a long line of humanity waiting to receive a gift from God. One by one they came and stood before me, their bare faces ready.

(sculptor, Willy Wang, Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas)

Each face, each rubbing of my ash-filled finger across each forehead was a treasured moment for me.  There were an array of faces…old, young, dark, pale, sad, happy, full of expression, blank hollow stares.  Ashes were anticipated gratefully, joyfully, pensively…others somberly, with a stillness like the night, a holy night.  Each one had a story.  I wanted to know, not like a nosy neighbor.  I wanted to know the story of their life…their feelings, their thoughts in that moment of the touch of the cross shaped ashes on their skin.  Each one was given the same touch, the same words, “The cross is a sign of God’s sacrificial love for you.”  Each touch of the cross held the same power of redeeming love and new life.  Still, each person received differently…

– a big strong man, bold faced yet bending to receive in grace

– a scrunched up nose , expecting the possibility of falling ashes scattered

– the child, lifting her bangs high from her forehead, awaiting the special gift with a big smile and a soft giggle

– the dark skinned man of a foreign nationality at home at this moment in this sanctuary

– the woman with wart-like bumps all over her face anticipating the beauty of transforming love.  Her eyes were peacefully closed, her head tilted back, face aglow with the light of Heaven’s touch upon her.

I could have done this all night, giving the touch of the cross through ashes.  Touch can be so powerful, a lasting  impression.  This time, this year became something more for me.  I realized that through the touch, beyond the touch, flowed something deeper than just the imposition of ashes.  I actually felt the love for each person that Jesus must feel.  At the same moment it was happening for them, it was happening inside me!

Here we all are, the community of sinners with black cross smudges on our faces, gathered together in our knowing need of a Savior.  Dust bound.  Proclaimed by ashes. Redeemed by the cross.  It’s a beautiful sight!

nk

Pondering…

Recall a memory of receiving ashes.

Remember a touch of Love.

Yesterday afternoon during my writing class at Rice University our teacher sent us each out of the classroom into the hallways to search the artistic photographs on the walls and find one which spoke to us.  Then, she says, ” Write about whatever comes to your mind.”  I wandered out of the box into the outdoors, to find my own artistic expression apart from the walled-in space. Here is what appeared…

The sculpture which grabs my attention is a blob.  It is located outside which calls me toward it, a sense of freedom, being out in the open air.  The blob makes me curious.  Perhaps it’s not so much what it is, as what it is not.  There is an intriguing design about it, within it, which makes me want to create something.  I want to draw it.  I want to find the designs which are present in the lines of the fabric folded, embracing and encompassing whatever is held within.

Blob drew me closer so I could see, find more.  Each side of  this circular globe reveals a different perspective.  As I adjust the camera’s eye, there are endless  views and viewpoints, round and round.

Peeking within one fold of the fabric, where it is not quite meeting, I detect nothing but dark space inside.  Yet, space is not absence, it is presence…a fullness free of clutter, something unseen that is fully present. I like space.  Actually I love space!  I need space in my life!  It feels freeing, inviting, mysteriously ready to reveal something not yet realized.

I want to see more of the inner darkness.  I can’t crawl in!   “Would you if you could?”  Smiling,  I think so.  It feels playful…like a secret hiding place, a tree house, a nest.  Something the child in me would do.

As I get closer I detect that the fabric is well worn denim.  At the top of Blob can be found the features of a very large denim shirt.  There is a collar, a sleeve, buttons.  It seems someone had wrapped their arms around Blob, around the globe.  Within that wondrous wrapping is a huge heart embracing emptiness, or fullness, or both. Amazing grace!

As I reflect upon this experience, it is now the dawn of yesterday’s tomorrow.  Today is Ash Wednesday.  We begin the journey called Lent.  What is this journey ?  I suppose it can be and will be about anything God chooses to give each one of us along the way to resurrection.  We walk forward with expectation. What is important I think, is our openness to the space God provides in our lives to allow us room to grow.

I want to attempt to be open to space where the fullness of God can find me, reach my emptiness in the absence of clutter.  In some sense, I want my life to be shaped like ole Blob, an artistic creation formed by the poured out denim worn by the man called Jesus, who was a God-send!

nk

Pondering…

How might we find space during this journey?

Ah, there is a beautiful Redbird just outside my window right now!