Stuck in traffic

Sometimes you just have to admit you got stuck in a traffic jam. The journey has not really progressed very far today but then that is the nature of the problem from yesterday – knowing what you need to do but not knowing how to do it. After all, some answers don’t come straight away.

So what did I reflect on today. Mainly time in the wilderness, primarily because that is what today felt like in terms of my Lenten reflections. As I dug into the wilderness I started thinking about the things that the Devil threw at Jesus and started to think that there did not seem to be 40 days worth of temptation. So Jesus had a lot more to think about than gaining the whole world and being saved by angels. And it took him forty days to think it. It took the mind of God in a man 40 days to think through the things that were on his mind.

By contrast, today we love the instant. When I asked Google who Jesus was it gave me 728,000,000 answers in 0.26 seconds. We want to know things before we have even thought about the questions and we fail to give time to the process of thinking. Theology is quite literally our thinking about God, God himself gave 40 days to that (plus an eternity more) and sometimes we give him 0.26 seconds. I think about my wife and children a lot, because I love them. What kind of time do I give to thinking about God whom I also love?

So what did I discover looking out of the window while stuck in the traffic jam. That Lent is about making time for God, taking time away from the normality of the year to do something different. Allowing the forty days to think and devote to deepening our understanding and discipleship of the living God. But that just brings me full circle in my feelings about Lent, because just as I am an all year round Easter day kind of person I am also an all year round theologian, because I believe we should deepen our understanding and discipleship of the living God each and every day of the year.

Two steps forward, one step back!