Dear Kaleid Ladies,
We’ve moved into Holy Week, and aren’t you so very glad to know that Easter is in view. The wilderness is a season, not a permanent habitation!
Today we offer you a simple set of questions to see yourself as this Lenten season (but perhaps not this virus season) moves toward an end. Our team member Saranell offered these questions to the Kaleid Foundations group a couple of weeks ago, and so we share them with you.
What has the coronavirus and social distancing taken from you?
What has the coronavirus and social distancing not taken from you?
What have you gained that you wouldn’t have otherwise had during this virus-time?
The first question is one of lament. We lean into lament as a gift of our faith. Christianity is faith with a capacity--a design--to hold unanswerable questions, deep loss, and ugly emotions. Your faith container is stretched as you reach out in honest pain, naming it and welcoming God into it with you. Good Friday is the deepest expression of “God with us.” Jesus entered all the way into the violence of the human condition. He can hold your pain with you.
The second question brings us to awareness. When we practice noticing, we can be present to our lives. We can be steady in our hearts. We can remember that breath itself is a gift. Ultimately, awareness helps us open our hands to simple miracles of physical life, ongoing relationship, and meaningful work. Noticing and naming what remains is a way of agreeing with God that this broken creation also holds so much good--so much worth noting and naming.
The final question reminds us of gratitude. Gratitude lifts our gaze and lifts our hearts. It connects us to God’s small grace-gifts and to God’s enduring character of steadfast love. There is something new being created in your life, your home, your world even in this time of deprivation. Resurrection power is at work. May gratitude encourage you as you practice it.
We appreciate you so much, and we pray blessings over your Easter weekend.
Gratefully,
The Kaleid Team
We love this way of praying through Holy Week using the image of our favorite cup.
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