March 1st, 2024
Into the Desert
Brothers and Sisters, if you grew up in a musical home like me, then today’s readings compel you to sing Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes. Fittingly, I will be in the audience tonight for a local production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, the musical inspired by today’s Old Testament Scripture, in my home state of California. While the jazzy rhythms of “Joseph’s Dreams,” play in the background of my mind, I would like to focus more prayerfully on today’s beautiful Psalm.
We are just over two weeks into our Lenten season, and some of us may be thinking we took on too much in our Lenten practices, or maybe we’re really enjoying the practices we’ve implemented. Wherever we happen to be in our Lenten journey, I would like to encourage us all to pause and think about how we perceive Lent and our observances. How many of us think at the start of this season, “What am I going to do for Lent this year?” I would like to propose that we reframe this question, and prayerfully put less weight on ourselves and more weight on Our God. Instead of thinking of what we will do, can we think:
“What will God do with me, through me, and in me in this Lenten season?”
“What are ways I can allow God to come and live with me more intimately?”
“How can I wait in a state of receptivity and expectancy for Him to do marvelous, wonderful, and humbling things in my life in this season?”
In today’s Psalm refrain, we read, “Remember the marvels the Lord has done” (emphasis added). I encourage you to sit in prayer, invoking the Holy Spirit to be with you, and repeat this refrain over and over. Ask the Lord to bring memories to you, in which you saw and experienced the marvels that the Lord did for you or a loved one, possibly during a Lenten season. In those memories, reflect on how God expressed Himself to you, how He revealed to you that He was at work in that situation or experience. Were you open to His movements in that time, prayerful, and receptive to Him? What was your heart posture when you were most aware of His marvelous deeds?
In our attempts to be good and faithful servants, we can sometimes lose sight of how God is the primary one at work in our Lenten practices, and ultimately, we are called to receive Him and be with Him in these practices. If during Lent you find yourself focusing on what you’re doing, or what you’re not doing well enough, simply ask the Lord to help you do less so that He can do more. As the Psalmist sings, “Remember the marvels the Lord has done.”
I am praying for you, Brothers and Sisters, and I am excited to know that the Lord is doing wonderful, incredible, and marvelous things with you, through you, and in you this Lenten season.
Madison Mitchell is a Broadway performer and Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher. She is a Cantor at her parish, and she currently freelances as a choreographer in sunny Southern California. Visit her website at www.madisonmitchell.net for more info.