View this email in your browser The two congregations worship at Lakewood on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. All are welcome!  Lent It’s hard to keep up in today’s world even on something as simple as the news let alone the laundry! And then there are relationships which take time and energy. And holidays. And dealing with the healthcare system. I have been trying to get a prescription for an inhaler since January. Well, you know. When we went on the Camino de Santiago for the first time which involved 33 days of walking, I did not have a smart phone. I did not take a phone. That was 2012. When we went on the Camino in 2017, I did have a smart phone. And we sent a picture to our kids every day so they would not worry about us. And when we did the Camino in 2022 and walked for 6 weeks, we had our phones but tried to only use them for pictures and needed arrangements and information. But what you discover, when you attempt to ‘unplug’ for a month or more, is that the world goes right on turning without you. And when you plug in again, it is all right there waiting for you as if you had never left. Really, no one, except maybe your family and your friends and your church, misses you. Busy as we are, and the messaging that makes us think being busy makes us important, it’s bosh. And prayer can remind us of this. Opening ourselves to a power beyond and within us can restore our perspective on our importance. And it can be, well, amusing. And, hopefully, we can laugh. Alesandro Pronzato, in his book Meditations on the Sand, tells us: “Among the fruits of prayer there is one which, to my knowledge, is not recorded in standard books on prayer. It is laughter.” I think Pronzato is right. We don’t usually associate prayer with laughter. But we should. Pronzato offers this litany of the funny side of prayer. I laugh because I take myself too seriously. I laugh because I believe that I am the centre of the world. I laugh because I think everything depends on me. I laugh because I am so inconsistent. I laugh because I presume to advise God. I laugh because I am worried about my reputation. I laugh because I discover the truth about myself. Surely you can find yourself somewhere in that litany. So, take the opportunity to laugh when you pray today and everyday! Note: The Lenten meditations for 2024 are written by Kim Wells and inspired by themes in the book Meditations on the Sand by Alesandro Pronzato written in 1981. |
Lakewood United Church of Christ 