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Lenten devotions 2008

MARCH 3 - INTO NEW LIFE
By Launa Rohrer, associate dean of students

THIS WEEK’S THEME: Into new life

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DEVOTIONAL:
“Now that’s living!” we say, when we have an experience that captures vitality and excitement. True living might connote a sense of connection with the world around us, a sense of having ‘arrived’ or ‘having it all.’

This week’s theme, “Into new life,” weaves together a number of passages remit with brokenness, despair and loss. At first glance, the Valley of Dry Bones and the tomb of Lazarus reflect only death and destruction. Psalm 130 reverberates with cries of despair and hopelessness, all responses to real and painful human experiences. Certainly, not the way many of us define living.

Jean Vanier, founder of the L’Arche community for people with mental disabilities, offers a contrasting perspective of what ‘living’ or ‘giving life’ may be for the believer. Vanier suggests that to offer life, we must offer that which we most love to others. Offering what we most treasure allows us to transmit life to others. By living with people with disabilities, Vanier learned that to “be human is to be bonded together, each with our own weaknesses and strengths, because we need each other.”

What do we treasure most today? Perhaps it is our money, our time, our independence, our intellect or our ability to serve others. May God show us our brokenness and need for each other so that we might truly live.

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Devotion organizer’s note: To clear up some confusion, we do not include a Scripture with the devotions on Mondays, but rather focus the devotion on the week's theme (a subtheme of "Out of the depths"). The lectionary then offers us four Scriptures that we include with the devotions the rest of the week.
Posted at 17:39 #