The word “Lent” means “lengthen” and is often associated with the longer days of Springtime. Historically, Christians have asked themselves to stretch spiritually during this season, either by denying themselves some ordinary pleasure or adding some edifying practice such as prayer. Over the years, I’ve given up watching TV, alcohol, coffee (don’t advise), and sweets. And I’ve taken on extra things like service or spiritual readings at the breakfast table. The effort in either direction can be a way to kick-start one’s faith. But it can also lead to the illusion that the faith is in our hands. That we can somehow grow our faith like we grow our biceps!
In a new book called “Glimmerings,” I was reminded that this path of faith is not so easily manipulated by human hands. The book is a conversation between a theologian who grew up in war-torn Yugoslavia and a poet who is battling terminal cancer. Both of them teach at Yale, and the dialogue began as fresh air walks around the block to break up the academic rigor. There, a friendship blossomed that included stories about their spouses and children as well as about their glimmerings about God. Both of them have struggled to make sense of God in a world of evil and suffering. At one point, the poet is writing to the theologian from his hospital bed, where he is recovering from a bone marrow transplant. What does salvation look like when life feels fragile? How is God at work in the midst of the sorrow? Neither sugar coats the faith and yet both embrace the mystical quality of the shared human spiritual journey.
At one point, the theologian, Miroslov Volf, says to the poet, Christian Wiman,
“As I have aged, I have come to believe that my faith matters much less than I thought it did when I was younger. I am saved by God’s faithfulness, not primarily by my faith. My faith is a fruit of God’s faithfulness, not the condition of God’s arrival into my soul . . . . “
I love this! We are saved, not by our faith but by God’s faith! I wonder if the real purpose of Lent is not so much to grow our faith as it is to realize how faithful God is to us? God arrives in our souls, ready or not. God rises. It’s absolutely astonishing.
Grace and Peace,
Carla
