Through a Loving Lens

Course correction requires some effort on our part. Whether we’re on land or in the water, when the course we’ve taken requires correction we have some sense that individually or collectively we’re going to have to expend some energy. Enter: the Season of Lent.

Many of us in our church community are NOLS alums or Wilderness Adventure alums or alumni of our backcountry adventures. All of us who’ve been “out there” know that from time to time, as we make our way down the trail or as we make our way from one place to another place, we stop to assess. Perhaps the first thing we do is take a good look around. We might examine a sign at a trail crossing and ask ourselves if that makes sense. Likely we take out a map. Maybe take out a map AND a compass. What we most assuredly do, in a disciplined way, is stop and make an assessment—are we headed in the direction we intend to head, and what is our ultimate goal. That assessment requires an intentional change in perspective.

In walks our Lenten theme for 2020—“Through a Loving Lens.”

What assessments do we need to make over the course of the next 40 days and some Sundays in order for us to evaluate whether or not we’re on the path toward belovedness?

What do we need to do to get a thorough evaluation of our lives individually and collectively? What might the to-do list look like for such an assessment?

During the season of Lent, the stories from the Bible we’ll listen to and wrestle with are stories of characters wrestling with perspective, facing challenge, embracing different realities and possibilities. We’ll listen to and wrestle with those stories together. And, then, each of us has opportunity to look at our own life through a different set of glasses that might shed new light! Try them on and see what you see!

Love, Jimmy