Tags

, , , , , , , ,

cropped-lent-geo-page-banner.jpg

Lent Photo-A-Day (February 10 – March 27, 2016)

`
Day 17 — Mystery

I understand that sometimes certain planets all line up in a row and people, knowing this is going to happen, begin to make all kinds of predictions as if this event is going to herald in something magnificent — or disastrous. Is that astrology or astronomy or both? I’ve no clue.

What I DO know is that sometimes events, things, happenings, whatever you want to call them, line up in my life to become something mysterious.

Tonight, for example, as I sat here pondering this next word for the Lenten Photo challenge — mystery — I was also working on my Friday Favorites piece. I had stumbled on a poet who was new to me, John F. Deane. What I learned about him intrigued me, and as I read through bits and pieces of his life on websites, I ran across something from British Council | Literature that excited me, his “author statement.”

I’ve been trying to figure out why in the world I even decided to take on this challenge. Heaven (and now all YOU) know that I struggle and struggle with faith issues and have for years. But here tonight, on the day of mystery, in a very succinct and, at least to me, profound way, I’ve discovered in Deane’s words the exact reason I decided to participate in this challenge. He said:

I write poetry and fiction to help me recover what I have lost, through personal experience, and through doubt and hesitations because of contemporary philosophies and events, in the area of faith; my work is to re-locate, to re-name and to re-evaluate the Christian experience and values, not tied to any individual church or churches. I write to set the Christ-life echoing. (John F. Deane, British Council | Literature)

I could never have articulated my goal, my reason for trudging this particular side path on my journey, any better than Deane did in that paragraph. The idea that I just bumbled into it at just the right moment when it was on my mind is not serendipitous, it is a gift that, for me, exemplifies the mystery of things of faith.

I, too, have been trying to recover what I’ve lost through the personal experiences and colliding philosophies in my life, and to re-experience faith through the person of Jesus and not necessarily the church.

mazeI love these moments because they let me know that no matter how far I may have wandered from the best path for my life, I have found my way back — a least for a time — and have collided with God. And that’s a very great encouragement to me in the darker valleys of my journey. How they happen is a mystery to me, and I’m very content to let them be so. (Do take the time to click the link below to read the fascinating story of the five mysterious mazes above Oakland, California.)
`

`
The mysteries of faith are degraded if they are made into an object of affirmation and negation, when in reality they should be an object of contemplation.
`
(Simone Weil)

`

Picture Credit: www.sfgate.com