Into the Desert: Week 4 | Being Still

Week 4 | being still

“...everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”
— 2 Corinthians 5:17

The desert's gifts are bought at a cost. Those who enter its harsh but beautiful landscape are marked by the journey. The sun burns skin and sharp edges scrape. Inevitably there is a time when the question is asked, "Why am I putting myself through this?"

In Lent, there is a similar moment - a seemingly inevitable time when one journeys through the self-denial and devoted reflection of Lenten discipline and an overwhelming feeling of having done "enough" begins to beckon.

In both the desert and our Lenten practices, thirsting and hungry, battered by harsh environment, we can be tempted most profoundly by the simple call to move on. It is often in these moments when we can be most sure that change is under way. There is so much to be gained from acknowledging what we are experiencing, the difficulty of the circumstance, and renewing our commitment to being present in the crucible of the moment.

Desert Mother, Amma Syncletica uses the image of a bird caring for her eggs to remind us that sometimes it is best to be still and let new life be born in that patient attention and intention.

With patience, what can be born or born anew in you this Lent?

// resources

"We carry ourselves wherever we go… we cannot escape… through mere flight...the invitation of these ancient teachers is never an invitation to run away from our lives, rather it is, always, a beckoning home."

"It is hard for us to know the innately humane rhythm of life as long as we are harried and hurried. We become strangers to the persons God calls us to be..."

"How quietly I begin again from this moment..."

// questions for going deeper

  1. In this moment, what in your life is calling you away from stillness and the growing edges emerging in your Lenten practice?

  2. Amma Syncletica recognized growth can be marked with pain. How do we discern what is healthy discomfort and what is not?

  3. Whether at ease or discomfited by it, how can you create opportunity for stillness, quiet reflection, in your daily life?

Payton Hoegh