That might have been the question that Jesus' friends asked when they witnessed the final days, hours and minutes of Jesus' trial and execution. On a much less important scale, it is also the question I am asking in this my final blog entry in this season of Lent. As I predicted a couple of days ago, the last few entries have been in some ways the hardest to fit in to a busy schedule, but as it turns out they were not the hardest to do. A number of incidents have occurred in the past few days that have reasonably easily led me to a blog topic. The hardest times were a couple of weeks ago when I was very tired and just wanted to go to bed but could not because of the commitment I made to myself and others to keep this as my Lenten discipline. It was then that I found myself asking the questions about whether it was a worthwhile exercise to have a Lenten discipline that seemed more like a chore that had to be done than a spiritual exercise that could possibly lead me to a deeper relationship with God.
Now that I've kept my commitment to the spiritual discipline, I can honestly say that there are other ways that I think would have helped me to accomplish the deepened relationship with God. However, this discipline has also been worthwhile for me. I feel good about having achieved what I said I would do. I feel particularly good about the first couple of weeks of entries. It was then that I was able to spend some focused time on the topic of discipline and those first few entries will be a helpful guide for me in times to come - as background material whenever I have occasion to talk about the importance of keeping a discipline, and as a guide and a distance marker for me in my own self-directed spiritual journey. Perhaps it will also be helpful for me as a resource in any future spiritual direction that I undertake.
Rather than enter a wilderness at the very beginning of this journey, the wilderness came to me in the latter part. That's okay and it is a helpful learning for me in case I ever choose this form of Lenten discipline again.
That's what is on my mind late into these final hours of Holy Week. I've been particularly appreciative of the second discipline I chose for this week, namely the walk through Holy Week that has been provided for me in the entries of Iona Dawn: Through Holy Week with the Iona Community. I've been both affirmed and strengthened by the things the writers there have offered to me - affirmed because often their words about particular incidents or situations in the gospel stories have matched my own and strengthened because I've also been given helpful new perspectives.
Blessings to all who have been reading here.
I will be back in a few days.
Holy Saturday,
Yellowknife,
April 3, 2010
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