Sunday, March 28, 2010
Palm Sunday, and the readings focused on the Passion. The 22nd Psalm, used as a Response, stood out most for me – “My God, My God, why have you abandoned me?”
Jesus prayed those words on the cross, and they sound so full of agony. But, when you read the entire psalm, after deep and honest soul searching the psalmist comes to a deeper trust of God.
When we’re sick or in trouble, it’s OK to bring our groaning and frustration before the Lord. And God can turn our cries into an experience of letting go and letting God.
God can turn our cries into an experience of letting go and letting God
Reflecting on the experience here, there is plenty of goodness, kindness and beauty, which helps. Yet, each day, I face the reality of the cancer and a serious surgery eventually coming up.
Like the passion, it’s ultimately about dying and rising. The cancerous part of me must die before new and healthy cells can be reborn.
On the spiritual side, Lent reminds us that we all have parts of ourselves that must die in order to produce new life – the self-centeredness and laziness, those areas where we are tempted and sin. That’s what I’ve been most aware of on this journey of 40 days and beyond.