Sunday, February 28, 2016

Third Sunday of Lent: Trusting in the Ebb and Flow

“But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did …” - Lk 13:1-9

Today’s gospel takes us into familiar territory, places where people suffer and question: Why? Jesus does not answer the question, but calls each of us to repent and journey into one more season of cultivating, pruning, and growth. He proposes to change the way I live, unravel and reweave the way I understand life, let go of my projections, and be more willing to stretch myself towards the direction of goodness and light. He invites me to be open to an idea that in all things there is both something broken and beautiful, a shadow of hope in every sorrow, and how rejoicing is no less rich when it contains a splinter of grief.

As a child, I learned about the waves while swimming in Marina Del Rey. If I tried to stand and face the wave, it would smash me. But when I trusted the water and let it carry me, I found authentic moments of peace and sweetness. Years later, each wave represented a choice and how God would encourage me to live a bigger story - one not about me and not consisting of an answer, timeline, or map.

As I mine back through my heart and memories, I noticed my most sacred moments developed when I allowed changes to work their way in my life and when I chose to float instead of fight. In trusting God and surrendering my tendency of self-reliance, I respected the things that change forged in my life and learned humility in receptivity, awareness, and simplicity. Repentance is the means to reclaiming the life entrusted to us, the way to become most authentically who we are and who, at the deepest level, we long to be.

What might repentance look like in the waves of my life?

Tam Lontok 

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