“Dwelling on this thought of letting go, and handing myself over to the Spirit will bring me much closer to the experience of Jesus than the word “discipline” that so many of us have been trained to invoke at the beginning of Lent. It should help us smile at our anxious attempts to bring our life under control, the belt tightening resolutions about giving up this or taking on that. What we are called to give up in Lent is control itself. Deliberate efforts to impose discipline on our lives often serve only to lead us further away from the freedom that Jesus attained through surrender to the Spirit, and promised to give. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).”
–Martin L. Smith, A Season for the Spirit
The quotes for this week come from Martin L. Smith’s A Season for the Spirit: Readings for the Days of Lent. I bought this book almost 30 years ago after meeting the author, a priest in the Society of Saint John The Evangelist, an Anglican monastic order. I was in seminary at the time, and my inner world was being slowly shaped by the liturgical seasons. It was the first time that I had intentionally entered into the liminal space of the Lenten season. It was a crash course in understanding what it meant to journey through the wilderness, and one for which I am eternally grateful. I return to this book year after year, and always something new appears within and without. -Jim Marsh, Jr.
