Feeling at peace...

This morning I had a LATE breakfast with my daughter - scones and hot tea and lots of conversation - and that was a treat.  The rest of the week is FULL, but I have a peace about it that feels right:

+ Tonight I lead a conversation into the PLAY-FULL life group

+ Tomorrow there is the Inter-Faith group annual meeting, getting ready for our Fat Tuesday gig and then the actually Blues and Jazz Party in which 24+ musicians will be making music to raise funds for the local hunger center

+ Wednesday is Ash Wednesday - worship at both 12:10 pm and 7 pm - and ashes to burn and prepare along with cleaning up after Fat Tuesday

+ Thursday there will be meetings and maybe even a little sermon preparation

+ And after worship on Sunday - the first Sunday of Lent - we're off to a Jazz and Liturgy workshop for 5 days in Nashville

And yet it all feels right and focused and gentle, hmmmm...?  Peterson writes that one of the sacred insights for living fully into the paradox of suffering and celebration is nourishing a sense of waiting and hope. "They are at the center of Psalm 130:  I wait for the Lord, my soul waits and in God's word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord!"

The words wait and hope are connected with the image of the watchmen waiting through the night for the dawn.  The connection provides important insights for the person in trouble who asks, "But surely, there is something for me to do!?!" The answer is yes, there is something for you to do, or more exactly there is someone you can be: a watchman. A watchman is an important person, but he doesn't do very much.  The massive turning of the earth, the immense energies released by the sun - all that goes on apart from him. He does nothing to influence or control such things: he is a watchman.  He knows the dawn is coming; there are not doubts concerning that. Meanwhile he is alert to dangers, he comforts restless children or animals until it is time work or play again in the light of day...

... the Christian's waiting and h oping is based on the conviction that God is actively involved in his creation and vigorously at work in redemption. Waiting does not mean doing nothing. It is not fatalistic resignation. It means going about our assigned tasks, confident that God will provide the meaning and the conclusions. It is not compelled to work away at keeping up appearances with a bogus spirituality. It is the opposite of desperate and panicky manipulations, of scurrying and worrying.

And hoping is not dreaming. It is not spinning an illusion of fantasy to protect us from our boredom or our pain. It means a confident alert expectation that God will do what God has said he will do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith.

There are demands to stand and deliver this week - and throughout the season of Lent - even in a small faith community.  But the key is to engage them all in a playfull way so that it is possible and natural to wait and hope, yes?