A friend told me the other day that living a life of faith is like walking across a windy plain. It is neither comfortable nor certain, but it is possible. While the tendency might be to hunker down and stop moving altogether, once you stand up and walk, you realize that the wind pushes but does not push you down. I am struck by this image because the only power one has over the situation is to keep walking because the wind will not be tamed. I can’t control the wind and have no certainty of destination or that the wind will stop, but to walk in faith is to keep walking.
Today I realized that Lent has been a time for me to prove my piety by being in control, by being disciplined, but I think this is a terrible misunderstanding of the tradition on my part. The desert is a place of humility that is precious because it creates a space for us to be stripped of our comforts and our vices. It puts us in a place where are dependence is placed on God, that we would be able to see his provision.
For this season of Lent I want to learn to sit in a place where my dependence is placed on God and not on my own strength because how will I know that I can walk across the windy plain until I get up? What keeps me from experiencing God as my provider and in what ways have I truncated his power in my life?
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