Often it seems like we are surrounded by inflammation. Not necessarily physical infection, but inflammatory words. Inflammatory behavior. Inflammatory gestures. Inflammatory opinions. Like, larger than life. Is this because it is hard to get anyone’s attention in this distracted world? Evidently, it is not just young people who are on their phones all the time but older people as well. Following everything, caught up in all the drama on the news or on social media. Maybe we know little about what is actually going on around us let alone within us. It’s all out there in the land of pixels.
Lent is a time to be more reflective. Quiet. Engage in meditation. Prayer. It is a time to try to get to know ourselves better and to grow closer to the Divine Love that is at the core of who we are.
One year during Lent, we included a two minute period of silence in each service. The first Sunday one person got up and walked out during the period of silence. I spoke with the person after the service by phone. They said, I just couldn’t stand it. I could not take the silence for that long. I just had to get out of there.
For one thing, when we engage in quiet reflection and prayer, we don’t know what is going to come up. We don’t know what thoughts may arise. We don’t know what will enter our minds. We give up control. But what comes may be something good, beautiful, healing even.
In Samantha Harvey’s novel Orbital, we are told about what arises for one of the astronauts, Pietro, from Italy. “In orbit his sense of life is simpler and gentler and more forgiving, not that his thoughts are different but that his thoughts are fewer and more distinct. They don’t avalanche like they used to. They come and they interest him for as long as they need to and then they go.” [p. 121]
I think this is how we can look at Lent. A time for life to be simpler, gentler and more forgiving. Thoughts that are fewer and more distinct. And maybe we will want to bring this calmer introspection into the rest of the year, not just Lent, because we find ourselves feeling closer to our essence, Love.
Prayer: May I seek what is simple, gentle, and forgiving and so find my true self. Amen
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Devotion prepared by Rev. Kim P. Wells, pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, FL
The devotions this Lenten season will be based on the novel Orbital by Samantha Harvey. Orbital won the Booker Prize in 2024. It is a beautifully written story about the experience of a group of people orbiting the Earth in a spaceship. They see 16 sunrises and sunsets in a 24 hour period. The book is a reflection on the experience of living together and appreciating planet Earth in a new way.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 