We can so easily turn Lent into a period of chasing. We chase a better prayer life, better self-discipline, and God’s forgiveness.
What is Jesus doing in this period?
In the desert, He sits in His physical weakness and proves that everything He needs is right where He is, in the silence and stillness, and God alone is His strength.
We shouldn’t be chasing anything. If we have to chase, it means that we are fleeing the present circumstances in which God has placed us. Chasing comes fundamentally from an attitude of “the grass is greener on the other side.” But the grass is greener wherever Jesus walks on it; and this Lent, he wants to walk where you are, right now.
Jesus asks for a little stillness, a little silence, to come and sit with you. He wants to pray with you.
And while He waits for you to join Him, He sits, quietly, holding your brokenness and suffering up to the Father. His prayer is for your life, your freedom, in full relationship with Him.
He doesn’t panic or indulge in a ‘woe-is-me’ attitude when He experiences hunger, thirst and discomfort. He just sits in the presence of the Father, enduring every moment in peaceful trust. And when the moment of temptation arrives, with a cunning plan and a carefully crafted pitch, Jesus’ strategy is to remain with His eyes calmly fixed in the one direction from which the tempter can never drag them. Jesus doesn’t need to beat him down, or clench his fists in refusal to acknowledge his proposals. He stares the tempter in the face and recognises the emptiness of his promises next to the promises of the Father.
Jesus doesn’t need dramatic deeds from you this Lent. He wants you to slow down enough to turn your eyes and see Him sitting there with you.
Looking into the face of Jesus, we are drawn into relationship with God. And that’s the foundation of our lives.
Your ultimate freedom is to look to God and recognise Him as your Father.
Christ sits with you, in the stillness and emptiness, needing nothing but your attention and heart, and he will do the rest.
Can you slow down enough to sit with him a while?
Article inspired by Scripture and by the following artworks:
- Unnamed (see image above) painted by SPEC Retreat Leader, Angela Rivera.