Brief Thoughts - Lent Journal (Sunday Lent IV)

A few brief thoughts that came up from today's readings:

• Isn't it curious how the LORD never reveals the full plans? He could have simply told Samuel, "Go and anoint David, Jesse's son, in Bethlehem". Instead, Samuel's faith is tested by having to go without knowing - he discovers God's plan in his faithfulness. This allows him the joy of being surprised by who is chosen, and who is rejected. Where am I being asked to trust without knowing the full story?

• Anointing with oil was symbolic of the richness of creation. It always makes me remember Confirmation, specifically the scent of the oil. I remember feeling the rush of the Holy Spirit at the Easter Vigil three years ago, a truly awesome sensation - which you could certainly partially attribute to good old-fashioned adrenaline, but was such a vivid extraordinary feeling that I have a hard time reducing it to anything naturalistic.

• "He guides me in right paths ... even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side" -- It still seems so counter-intuitive that God leads us into the dark valley. Or I suppose the appropriate preposition would be through instead of into. Our Father wants us to come to understand that we can rely on Him for everything, which means we have to come to see that we can't do it on our own.

• I have been working my way through the Bible - I just finished Jeremiah and most of Isaiah after getting through Kings and Chronicles. The lesson of primary importance is that same message - God asks that we look to Him for answers. This is so counter-cultural for those of us who were raised in contemporary American individualism that says self-reliance is the only type of reliance that can be counted on.

• The suggestion that we are light in the Lord is such a surprising twist in the spiritual life. While God is capable of doing all things on His own, the implication here is that we become the lights that expose darkness in the world, so that it can be rooted out. We are constantly on mission to enter into the deep dark undergrowth of society to uncover that which would otherwise go unnoticed. The Church needed that type of mentality through the decades of sexual abuse.

• We also need that mentality in our own lives, here and now. We need daily examinations, and we need to ask the Holy Spirit for the gift of humility and honesty in investigating every corner of our souls for the corruption of sin.

• There's too much to cover about the man born blind. Sometimes we get so caught up on the question of whether a person's circumstances were their own fault. Jesus's answer should undermine an accusatory attitude that would treat others as being outside of the Body of Christ. If any pain or suffering is allowed by God, it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.

• The story of the man born blind isn't just about physical blindness. It can just as easily be applied to spiritual blindness in our own lives. What are we blind do, either in our own lives or in society around us? What do we fail to see, and where does Christ wish to enter in and open our eyes?