A Lenten Journey of Five Minutes a Day or More

 On the first Sunday in Lent.  I was preaching at the Mennonite Church in Nairn.  My theme was Lent as a time of testing – a time to test a call you have discerned that God is giving you.  Every journey, no matter how short or long, begins with the first step.  Here is one simple way of testing out a call to be more available to God (whatever you consider your ultimate concern).  It is a small step to make yourself fully available to God for five minutes as day – or longer if that is right for you.

“Here I am, Lord. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8). Such was Isaiah’s response to God’s call. Today, try this simple “Here I Am” prayer from spiritual director and writer Teresa Blythe as a way to become available to God:

·        Resolve to be in prayer for at least five minutes. Do not answer the phone or allow yourself to be distracted from your goal.

·        Be seated and say to yourself, “Here I am seated, doing nothing. I will do nothing for five minutes” (or longer, depending on the time you set for yourself).

·        ​​​​​​​Begin noticing your own bodily presence—how your body feels next to the chair; how your feet feel against the floor. Relax your body. Notice what you feel inside.

·        Now notice the presence of all that is around you. Say to yourself, “Here I am in the presence of the room (garden, chapel, wherever you are).” Be aware of the furniture, walls, and any pets or people in the room. Just be present and silent in your environment. Relax even more.

·        Now say to yourself, “Here I am in the presence of God.” Repeat silently to God, “Here I am.” Bask in the presence of the Holy One until your time goal has been reached.

 I will close with a quote from Richard Rohr – a modern prophet, “Following Jesus is a vocation to share the fate of God for the life of the world.  To allow what God for some reason allows—and uses. And to suffer ever so slightly what God suffers eternally. Often, this has little to do with believing the right things about God—beyond the fact that God is love itself.”

Let us begin a blessed Lenten journey.