“Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?”
—Numbers 21.5
From a lectionary reading for Lent 4: Numbers 21.4-9
Reflection for Monday, March 12 (Day 17 of Lent)
We were made for freedom. Formed and fashioned by God, breathing with God’s own breath, we were created to live and move at full stretch and to offer our gifts in complete and unconfined measure. It is a disturbing peculiarity of humans that we have so often resisted this: that across time—and still—we have had such difficulty living into the divine freedom that God intended. We have enslaved others. Or we have taken our freedom lightly. Or we have given it away, trading it for something that looked like security. Or we have let it be taken from us because we didn’t know our own power or didn’t think that freedom was a state we deserved.
When we’re given a taste of freedom—like the people of the Exodus in today’s passage—it can sometimes seem too difficult. It requires vast amounts of intention and courage and faith to live into the liberation for which God has designed us. As the Israelites discovered, freedom is a big, uncharted territory, full of uncertainty and responsibility that can overwhelm our ability to see the gifts and possibilities the unconstrained landscape contains. Faced with that uncertainty and responsibility—and, let’s face it, with the reality that entering the terrain of freedom can involve discomfort and slim or distasteful rations—the confinement of the known can start to look more appealing than the freedom of the unknown.
And so, in the company of the children of Israel who had to learn to live into liberation, I am here today to ask you: Have you given away some part of yourself for the sake of security, or to keep the waters smooth, or because you thought it was expected? To whom or to what are you beholden? Is there some unknown territory that you need to press into with courage and intention in order to live more deeply into the freedom for which God has created you? Is there someone who needs you to come alongside them as they seek to do this in their own lives?
[To use the image “In the Wilderness,” please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!]
March 12, 2012 at 6:22 AM |
I’m a first time commenter to your blog. I have been reading it for a few months now and often find it very inspirational and encouraging. Thank-you so very much for taking the time to sharing your insight with the masses. This particular excerpt is right on time, at least for me. In striving to clear the temple of my own heart during this Lenten season, and remove the filth that so “easily entangles”, it is so much easier to retreat to the false sense of security and confinement of the known, rather than “straining toward what is ahead”. Thank-you for such a clear reminder.
March 16, 2012 at 11:09 AM |
David, thanks so much for your presence here and for the gift of your words. I am grateful and wish you many blessings as you continue to clear the temple of your heart in this season. Gratitude and peace to you.