A SaskLent: Snatched from the Jaws of Safety and Comfort in the Nick of Time—Again!

Jesus, who sets out and knows all our paths and resting places (Ps139.2), led us here to King’s Cottage in Regina.  After a few months of wintery settling in we are now observing our first SaskLent in this new season of our lives (there are many “Sasky” things in Saskatchewan—SaskTel, Energy, Power, Jobs, Health, Sports—you name it). Our SaskLenten self-examination will be a continuation of all the self-examining (and some self denial) that the move visited upon us as we left family and friends behind, culled our worldlies by a third and began the process of discovering what it is to settle into a new church and community where we haven’t come for the purpose of assuming some “official” role. We’ve been rather SaskStripped down exposing some emotional and spiritual nerves I didn’t know I had. As those nerves continue to jangle the rest of our Lenten disciplines of repentance, prayer, fasting, reading and meditation upon God’s holy Word (BCP, p611) are making for commensurate and somewhat gnarly devotional fare.

Recently, while looking for references to Ronald Rolheiser for my previous post, I came across this quote from Goethe:

The dangers of life are many and safety is one of them. 

As I reflect on the life we’ve left behind with all its comforts, familiarities and securities I wonder if this new jangled and rather disconnected state of affairs is actually a God-given escape from a dangerously safe situation? If so, I wonder why I’ve made so many such escapes from safety and familiarity in my life? Immigrating from New Zealand in 1974, moving from Winnipeg to Calgary in 1980, from Calgary to Saskatoon and seminary in 1988, to Airdrie and our first parish in 1991, Medicine Hat and St Barnabas in 1999—and now this. I must have unwittingly faced and escaped from a lot of danger in my life. Snatched from the jaws of safety and comfort in the nick of time—again!

And not only that. Rolheiser also wrote this about how Paul, after he had been knocked over and heard the voice of Jesus on the road to Damascus

Got up off the ground and walked into his ecclesial future “with his eyes open, seeing nothing” (Acts9.8)—which is a marvelous description of all of us on the day when we made our commitments in marriage, parenthood, priesthood, religious life, or any other deep vocation, we stared ahead into the future with our eyes wide open, seeing nothing, and walked, probably with some enthusiasm, into that future. (Seeking Spirituality: Guidelines for Christian Spirituality for the Twenty-First Century, Hodder & Stoughton: 1998, pp118-119)

And so here we are. Eyes front and wide open. Looking to the future. Wondering what’s next after having just been through our personal Medicine Hat to Regina version of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter. We've been SaskStripped and immersed in SaskLenten self-examination, repentance, prayer, fasting, reading and meditation upon God’s holy Word.

It's SaskGnarly, SaskNerve-wracking, SaskExciting and very SaskGood all at once.

Gene+