The Art of Onward: Living in the Wilderness

spiritual sustenance for March

Hello Blue Roomies,

Breathing in.

Breathing out.

(Do it with me.)

How are you faring these days?

Today in our Art of Onward series for supporting subscribers, I’ve got some thoughts on wilderness… more on that below.

But I’m also happy to announce our special guest for our March gathering! Join us at noon EDT on Monday, March 24, when we’ll be joined by Arianne Braithwaite Lehn, author of the Monday Manna newsletter and a wonderful prayer collection called Ash and Starlight. Arianne is one of those friends whose very presence always helps me get calm and centered, which is fitting because our topic will be presence. It’s a tricky concept right now—the world feels so chaotic and painful, I’d like to check out of it, to be honest. And yet here we are. More to come on March 24!

Zoom link and full Art of Onward schedule is below. If you’d like to join us but are unable to pay, please get in touch. Members and friends of Trinity Presbyterian, Herndon are eligible for complimentary gift subscriptions; just ask.

Those of us who follow the Christian liturgical calendar are in the season of Lent, the forty days (plus Sundays) of reflection and preparation for the feast day of Easter. At Trinity, our worship series for Lent is called “Everything in Between: Meeting God in the Midst of Extremes.” I preached a sermon on Ash Wednesday based on Luke 9:51-62, exploring the space between intention and action. You can listen here, where I begin with a reference to The Good Place:

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Photo by Nick Tong on Unsplash

On Wilderness

The season of Lent mirrors Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness. When so much seems to be falling apart around us, the wilderness has something to offer us as a symbolic landscape. Today I share some bits from the draft of the upcoming book. I wrote this section months ago, but I’m looking at it in a new way this year, so I’ve sprinkled some wonderings and questions into the piece. This is from a chapter on courage: