Categories: uncategorized
Date: 07 March 2011 08:49:49
My post from 2009 on a Creative Plan for a Positive Lent is one which people find at this time of year, infact it is possibly the most read post I've done (search engines seem to pick it up). I want to say though that I got it wrong.....I so missed the point of Lent at that point it wasn't funny.
I've been re-reading Matthew's account of Jesus in the desert, along side reading about Hagar in the desert. What I've noticed, which I don't think I had before was the role of angels. After the temptations the angels came and attended Jesus and it was an angel sent by God who Hagar encountered in Genesis 21. It seems that the encounter with the angel is part of what opens up the new chapter in each case (signifying the end of the time of servere hunger).
I want to suggest that perhaps it is time we stop trying to create false deserts (by giving up x, y or z) and rather ask if what God wants us to do is to attend to or act as his agents of transformation (angels) for people who really are in desert places.
Just a thought to throw in.