The Work of Lent: Part 3

I’ve learned a bunch in the last week about this thing called Lent and especially how what I’ve called work is only part of Growing a Rule of Life.

Our group conversations have deeply considered what we are calling the “physicality of prayer.”  Our bodies are not simply containers for a spirit to abide temporarily but are just as much actors in the drama of spiritual growth.  Our bodies kneel, our bodies breathe, our bodies rest, our bodies move in prayer, in pain, in bliss, in worry, in love.

Now I’m realizing that the way in which we construct our rule must be more than a set of directions.  More than just foot prints on the floor implying a dance to be learned.  St. Paul said, “without love I am a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal.”  Without love my rule sinks into self interest and social climbing.

One of the ways love is expressed is in how we aspire through our lives toward meaning, toward mercy, toward others. 

I’ve been listening to this song and have heard in it a rule of life that is not simply a set of directions but a pronouncement of where I believe love can take me. 

This is not exactly what our Cowley brothers are guiding us to construct but there is plenty in this song for us to include or name in our own ways in our rules. There is whimsy, there is truth, there is aspiration.  There is love.

Gospel 

I want to make it out alive never think about looking back.
I want to drive like hell when I steal the Devil's Cadillac.
I want to take that old El Dorado down a dirt road.
with How I Made It Over playing on the radio. 

I want to be solid as the earth and cool like the night air.
I want to believe even though I know life don't play fair.
I want to wear my heart on my sleeve but be tough when I have to.
I want to dust off the stars and hang them on the wall for you. 

I want to ask all the questions with answers we'll never know.
I want to find my faith in records from long ago.
I want to set fear on fire and give dreaming a fair shot.
and never give up whether anybody cares or not. 

 John Moreland

PS  Thanks Brian Easton