Lent, Wilderness, and Forty Days

It is my wilderness …

  a place to which I am being led.

   It is my forty days …

yes, my forty days

    to endure and to seek,

to trust and to pray,

  to be surrounded by

   very tending angels.

       

It is my aloneness,

    and wilderness and forty days.

I would hope that

   you too might allow it 

      if and when it comes …

      for there is a Holy Presence here.

      

 The wilderness is born

    out of a great silence 

    that hopes for a sudden glimpse

  of God in worship

    when all others around me

    are following their worship bulletins

      so carefully … so dutifully … 

      so worshipfully … so very well.

It is my wilderness.

    It is I who sing the hymns,

     with parched lips.

    It is I who reaches out for the morsels

       that the Spirit hands to me

       when I am so malnourished.

It is my wilderness.

It is I who listens for shouts 

   yet am satisfied

  with holy whispers.

It is my response to God to live into,

   not others to discourage.

The words, “Get thee behind me….”

  are on my lips, on guard and ready

  for one more attempt 

       to change direction.

It was my wilderness, 

… my forty days,

… my seeking, 

… my journey, 

… Your leading.

Holy One, you are in it all

   and in that, I do trust

   these unknown steps

  during these forty days.

Amen.