Resurrection is not a shortcut around grief. Teri McDowell Ott And there is was: a relatively brief sentence which exploded my Lenten moroseness. For one of my many growing edges is that I too often look for shortcuts, the easiest most expeditious way out. I am learning to pause and reflect on this long cultivated reaction; I am learning that sometimes the long way is the greatest teacher, of dear value. When I have paused and thought twice about the easy way and reconsidered the road not taken, I have learned valuable lessons albeit difficult ones. Like Jacob I have accepted wounds from the wrestling while being blessed by an angel in adversarial disguise.   Lent offers an entire season of reconsideration of shortcuts, easy answers, and non stop flights. Lent invites us to linger, to ponder choices, to engage in discernment which is different from mere decision making. Discernment, like Lent, is a prayerful process, not a moment of action, though action may result in due ti...

  “May your eyes be attuned to the good already happening. And may you do the next faithful thing, even when no one notices and nothing feels resolved.” Kate Bowler May you do the next faithful thing… This has become my prayer during this season of Lent when my fear or grandiosity oversteps my capabilities and reality. As I learn to be present and not fix (as though I could?!), as I learn to pause and not hurl myself into the void, I can feel my lens adjust to the simple next step. Somehow I feel a gentle liberation, not the fireworks kind we celebrate, but the quiet kind we too often forget. The next faithful thing then becomes exciting and energizing. What might it look like? The next faithful thing might be recommitting to a deeper practice of prayer. I pause before hitting play on the Netflix series I have been binging and pour a cup of tea as I settle for a long afternoon gaze at the ocean. I think of God and all whom I love.   The next faithful thing might be to call a f...