Turning to God by Cheri Holdridge

    So, it finally happened. It was bound to.  I finally lost my marbles. Literally.
This afternoon I was setting up for this service.  I was over in the kitchen area, getting out the box of candles and other stuff and I dropped a box, and this big glass cylindrical vase in which we keep clear glass marbles went crashing to the floor. All these marbles sprawled ALL over the Village kitchen floor. I had to pick up every one of them. EVERY ONE OF THEM.

    And I just kept thinking: “Yep, I’ve lost my marbles.”  You see, I’ve been a little stressed lately.  As you know, our church is moving to a new location next week. That would be enough. But we are also trying to do a big launch in 6 weeks at Easter time so that folks who have not heard of us will know who we are, so I have to help us get that ready.

     And well, you know, today is Ash Wednesday, so it’s Lent and all. That is a busy time ANYWAY, for a pastor.  But on top of all that, my daughter Becca, who goes to the Arts school downtown is in her first big production at the Toledo Repertory Theater and guess when the show is? Yep! You guessed it! This weekend. The same weekend The Village is moving!

    Do you ever have a week like this?  Yeah. I know you do.  Oh, not the SAME week.
You deal with your own lists of craziness.  Health problems.  Working two jobs to make ends meet.  Maybe you have adult children and older parents who need you. Maybe they should not, but you have gotten into a pattern of doing it anyway.

    We could talk about boundaries all day, but it is what it is.  Some of this stress, much of it, we bring on ourselves. We could set better boundaries. And we try, and some days we do better than others. Some of it’s just life. We have crazy busy lives.

    But THEN, we come to today. ASH WEDNESDAY.  And the Church says: STOP.
The season of Lent, in essence, is a gift that says, “Stop and take a breath.”  Lent is an invitation to slow down and turn our attention to God.

    You see, during Lent, we prepare ourselves to remember the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross. We remember that he died in order to show us how much God loves us.  Suddenly, my little struggles and inconveniences here on earth seem to pale by comparison.

    So I spilt some marbles on the floor today and had to get down on my hands and knees to clean them up. So that slowed me down. So, my daughter’s rehearsal went an hour over time TWO NIGHTS in a row this week. And I missed my book club. In the grand scheme of things, was that such a big deal, really?

    Jesus died on the cross to show us how to love each other. I think I can miss my book club so my daughter can have this experience that means so much to her. Sometimes we just need to take a breath and put things in perspective.

    So I was talking to my 12 year old daughter yesterday, and trying to help her understand about the season of Lent is about. She said, “I think for Lent I’m going to give up brushing my teeth.”   “No,” I said, “That is not an option.”  “Well,” she said, “Then I’ll give up doing my weekend homework on Sunday night. I’m going to do it on Friday when I get home from school.”

    Hmmm. I thought. Well that is something I would like her to do. But it is not really a sacrifice in the same way that giving up some food that you love is a sacrifice. What to do with this?  I thought a moment, and I said, “Well usually we give up something up for Lent, or take on some new practice,  because it frees up space in our lives for God, or points our attention toward God. Do you suppose that on Sunday nights, when you are so grateful that you do not have homework to do, you might say a little prayer, giving thanks to God for the blessing that you got your homework done early?”

    She got a big smile on her face: “Yeah, of course,” she said.  “Well, then,” I said, “That sounds like a great Lenten discipline.” “And in fact, you could pray and ask God for the strength to persevere in your commitment so that when you come home on Friday and you want to slack off, God can help you have the strength to do the think that right now you are saying you know you want to do.”

    I think Becca is on to something with her idea of a new sort of Lenten discipline.  The idea, after all, is to use this season, to take on some new practice, or to empty ourselves of something in order to make space for God. It’s all about becoming more of the person we want to be, with God’s help. She is tired of facing every Sun night, not having her homework done. She wants to be a follower of Jesus. She wants to be the person God created her to be. So why not put the two things together?

    Now, Jesus, he had a much more daunting task leading up to Easter. He had to face the powers and principalities of the world. They accused him of setting himself up to be King of the Jews and they crucified him on the cross for his actions of radical love.

    God asks us, on the other hand, to use these six weeks, to take on some practice to dig deeper in our spiritual life.  We might decide to deepen your spiritual practice of:

Prayer each day

Bible study each day

Read Henri Nouwen’s book Compassion and join the on line conversation

Give a larger portion of your money or your time to help those who are poor or marginalized in our community

Visit someone who is lonely; or write a handwritten letter each week to someone

Mend a broken relationship, with God’s help, that can be a spiritual practice too

Start Spiritual Direction with our Spiritual Director

Make plans to go on a Spiritual Retreat

Fast from something; the thing you give up, is a signal that points you to your hunger for God.

All of these examples are part of the Christian tradition of this season of Lent, of “Turning to God.”

    But let me warn you: when we turn to God, we need to be cautious. That’s why I put this yellow caution tape around our worship table tonight. You see, when we turn to God, we have to be willing to let God change our lives.

    I, for one, believe that when we open ourselves to God, we always open ourselves to change for the good. But change can be hard. Sometimes it feels like it gets worse before it gets better. But when we turn our lives over to God, and truly say to God, that we are ready to line up our lives with God’s desires for us, then we have to let go, and really follow the path God sets out for us.

    As we sing now, let’s consider whether we are really ready to turn to God. Let’s invite God to take our lives, and mold us and transform us into the people God wants us to be.