Lent

Lent is a powerful season in our church year. Some of us will resolve to not eat chocolate or not fight with our siblings. Others might think these small attempts are silly. But there is something powerful about a time of year that challenges people to make some kind of connection between how we live our lives and how God is calling us to live them.

Figuring out what God is calling us to is what we mean by discernment. Discernment isn't just for men trying to figure out whether or not they want to be a priest. It's for everyone. And it isn't something we can do all at once. It's a daily task. It's something we every day of our lives. It's often messy; it's always challenging.

All of us, at least at times, wishes that God would just "tell us what to do." Well, actually, he has!

In the person of Jesus Christ we have been shown what God wants for us. But it hasn't just been handed to us on a plate. It was handed to us on a cross. And, if Jesus is our way, we would understand that following God's call isn't easy.

We ought not to think of Jesus as walking a “scripted” path, as though he was some sort of divine actor who plays his lines faultlessly. Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness proves this: the struggle to live out his calling faithfully is one that has to be lived out and “proved” in the faithful doing of it. There is always the imminent possibility of failure - even for Jesus!

And it's the same with us. Being Christian means living dangerously. We have to eager to take chances, trusting that, like Jesus in the desert, the Spirit will not lead us anywhere and then leave us alone. We have to willing to make mistakes and then willing to learn from them. And always, always believing that God loves the sinner--and especially the sinner who cares and loves enough to risk choosing wrongly for the sake of love