We began our Lenten journey last night with a beautiful Ash Wednesday service. The service was led by Emmaus Campus ministry, included a beautiful song by University Congregational Church's Ensemble Voices. We ended with the imposition of Ashes reminding each other that from Dust we have come and to dust we shall return.
This Lent we are being guided by a Lenten theme taken from a traditional African American Spiritual "Guide My Feet."
Inside the sanctuary of our church are many beautiful drawings of feet done by Missoula artist Katherine Kress.
This image brings forth all kinds of questions and thoughts. We invite you to share in these thoughts and quesitons in the weeks to come as we journey through lent together.
I asked Janice Springer, our minister of spiritual formation to write something about our theme "Guide My Feet." Here is is:
ReplyDeleteI have always felt a Presence in my life guiding my feet as I make choices, change directions, travel to new places. I remember some of the times I felt guided: times when I responded with eagerness, my feet dancing with excitement, and times when I responded with great reluctance, dragging my feet all the way.
In high school, it was surely Spirit guiding my feet until finally I stood face to face with the classmate I had wronged, to whom I needed to confess and ask forgiveness.
In young adulthood, when I was caring for my newborn and two toddlers and my mother was dying, when I moved through my days numb with exhaustion and grief, the best I could pray was to ask that God help me keep putting one foot in front of the other so I could do what had to be done each day.
When I was on sabbatical, traveling alone through France for almost 6 weeks, intimidated by trying to figure out my life in another language each day, I felt that God was guiding my feet to the holy places and sacred experiences of that very challenging, very exhilarating journey.
In marriage and in ministry, and as a mother and a grandmother, I have trusted the Holy One to guide my feet to those places that bring life to others, that I might walk the talk, leaving behind me footsteps that would help others find the way.
And sometimes my feet have not followed God’s guiding, nor my heart either, but it has been my experience that God will make a detour as needed to join me wherever I am, and guide my feet once more back to life. Thanks be to God.
Janice Springer
Yesterday I preached a sermon on this theme. My sermon was about how I have felt guided by my feet when I walk in my sleep. For as along as I can remember I have walked in my sleep. What I have come to notice is that my sleep walking is a barometer for the health of my soul. There is usually something trying to break free from within my deeper self when I am walking in my sleep. When I walk in my sleep, I have learned to pay attention more carefully to my inner life. The inner struggles seem to come forth more deeply in the middle of the night.
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