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Lent Begins

Today is the beginning of the season of Lent.  The theme of Lent is preparation for Easter- preparation for real life.  Lent is a special time for me because it allows me a chance one more time to re-engage a process of making something out of life.  Maybe you are like me.  I get disgusted at myself when I make life worse rather than better. Too often it is appalling how easy it is to make life worse!  Lent is always that time and opportunity to listen to God saying, “Oh, you really can do better. You really can do better.  Come on, now!”

A key to this process is to let God come into our inner world and reshape us – remake us.  In fact, one of the good things about Lent is that it calls us to consider again our inner life.  It is so easy to live life every day without any attention to our inner world.  So much of life deals with externals…with the demands of others, the expectations of those who care about us, our own concern for reputations, and so on.  But our inner world---the inner life---is always there, just beneath the surface. 
 
But there is an alternative.  In this alternative sense, when we allow this divine Spirit into our inner world, we become an artist of the Spirit.  Unlike a scientist who may be handed a manual, the Spirit grants experiences out of which we make life – make it better or worse.  To go with the Spirit is to make things better.  And this is what Lent is about.
 
Albert Einstein pursues the image of the artist in this one-liner.  He says, “the greatness of an artist lies in the building of an inner world, and in the ability to reconcile this inner world with the outer.”  Our inner worlds are built.  They are like a house, which will be built.  Sometimes, the house is pretty inadequate.  It may be thrown up – no real foundation and little protection from the weathering life inevitably brings.
 
Lent is a time of building our inner world so that our dwelling place will be a place of security and comfort.  It is another chance to lay a good foundation.  Is my life of prayer solid and capable of supporting me through the storms of the seasons?
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