Ideally, our Lenten days should be days spent in quiet reflective time deep within our inner self, in the core of our being where our loving Lord resides and waits.
Our experience of life here on planet earth can be busy, hurried, noisy, stressful, and consists of prayer on the run between piano lessons, dance lessons, sports, home life and work. The balance in our lives is something we long and strive for continuously.
We have all experienced the starting of a day without prayer and it is definitely different than one beginning with prayer. Time in prayer affects our whole demeanor and gives us fuel to tackle our day and seed to plant in hearts, minds and souls along the way.
St. Theresa of Calcutta quotes:
“We need to find God and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness… The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life.”
We know that God desires a close relationship with each of us and calls us to intimacy. He is a personal God who came in human flesh, in Jesus, and made His home in first century Palestine. He wants, in this twenty-first century, to make His home in human flesh again, within each of us. Our deep desire is to have a growing and mature relationship with Him as well but it seems we prefer to come to God with a grocery list of things to ask for and healings to be had, plus enlightenment of the scriptures we are studying… but do we ever come just to be with Him. We find it difficult to just be. Being is hard. We have to have something to do, to say, to listen to, or to think about. God made us to love and be loved and to enjoy Him.
Jesus come knocking on the door of our hearts, but instead of rushing to open it, we are busy Martha’s. He calls us to be like Mary – to choose the “better part” for at least a few minutes each day. But, like the foolish lover in the Song of Songs, we are in no hurry to let go of our self-centered agenda and open the door.
Lent is a good time to revamp our agendas… make time for Him, open the door of our hearts and give ourselves to Him in love. Patiently, the Lord is waiting for us to turn within, where He dwells.
Can you not see Him waiting for you?