Don't curse the Road!

"'tis better to keep walking, than to curse the road" African proverb sighted in St. Paul.

Sometimes the road we are on isn't the road we wish we were on. But it is better to keep going, than to curse our situation, whine and moan and get nowhere! Lent begins tomorro, March 1st, in the Lutheran Calendar. So tonight we are having a friend over for pancakes, with all the gooey toppings we can find; syrup, chocolate, strawberries, pineapple, peanut butter. Maybe not all at once, but they will all be on the table. Then we begin in ernest the walk to the cross that is the season of lent.

In New Orleans and all over people will be celebrating "Fat Tuesday" with much more vigor and "fat" than we are. It is a way to keep walking in the face of a more somber road. We head into the season of Lent with singing and dancing and enjoying the gifts of God. Then we spend forty days contemplating and reflecting on those gifts, especially God's greatest gift, that of the life of his Son. It is a road to be cursed, the road to the cross, but as Christians, we know that at the end of that cursed road is the empty grave of Easter. To keep walking is to walk towards a goal greater than the road.

All things are made new

How long has it been since you were awed by a carrot peeler? My 2-year old son Jonah watched me peel carrots yesterday and exclaimed "Wow!" He was overjoyed at the news that the cleaners would come to Grandma's house today saying "That's very nice of them!" We get older and more jaded by life and forget that carrot peels are really cool! If you are only 4 months old, even toes are new!
Reminds me that "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Corinthians 5:17.
All things can be new again: carrot peelings, the cleaners coming, the trash truck. Or in our daily routine; a new e-mail from an old friend, a different shadow out the window, a new word out of our child's mouth. We are constantly being reborn in Christ, as the waters of baptism pour through our lives, not just once but every day, renewing our strength, our passions and our lives.