This Lent, we are exploring what must be cultivated within ourselves to further God’s work through us. We are also contemplating letting go of things that may be hindering our positive influence in the world. Please join us as we use imagery, reflections and poetry to dig deeper each week.
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Resist
by Lisle Gwynn Garrity
Inspired by Luke 4:1-13
While in the wilderness, what does Jesus resist? The temptation to provide only for himself instead of living into God’s abundant manna. The temptation to obtain unlimited power and control. The temptation to coerce faith or prove God’s power. The temptation to rule above the earth instead of from within it.
In his own 40-day Lent, Jesus is reformed and readied for his ministry, one defined by humility, justice, and compassion. I imagine he had to let go of ego and self-serving desires in order to cultivate a leadership ethic that upends structures of power and oppression. He had to let go of personal profit in order to cultivate inner strength.
In this image, a flash of red, symbolizing evil and temptation, snakes around Jesus’ head, as if to suffocate him. But a halo of gold, emanating from his steadfast expression, protects him from evil’s destruction.
Lent with New Eyes
by Kent Ira Groff
This Lent I don’t feel called to give
up something and certainly not add
on anything to an already full plate.
Is there something in between?
Ah! To go about what I’m already
doing but with new eyes, to live
awake with new intent this Lent,
with a magnifying glass to see
what’s there already that I walk past,
with a looking glass to notice
what I’m overlooking in my self
that would change the way I look
at other people and things
I see every day.
This Lent I pray for new eyes…
that I may live and act transparent…
then rise in forty days resilient.
A Sanctified Art LLC | sanctifiedart.org
