Lenten Devotional: Suffering and Celebration
This Lenten season, let us answer the call to slow down, dwell in stillness, breathe deeply in the silence so we might listen and hear what God is whispering into our hearts.
Suffering and Celebration
Last week, I wrote about how Lent is a time to do things that will draw us closer to God and in doing so we become more fully human. By acknowledging our reliance upon God and learning what it means to answer the call to follow Christ, we recognize not only our full humanity but the full humanity of others. In answering the call to follow Christ we are invited to move closer to people and their pain, to bear witness to their suffering and in learning to be present in the suffering we learn how to more fully celebrate in times of joy.
The society we live in offers us amazing ways to numb ourselves to the pain of this world—our pain and the pain of others. A few of my personal favorite numbing tools are scrolling through social media, store websites, and buying things I don’t need all in the search of a quick fix to alleviate pain or to make me happy. However, as I wake up to my full humanity by drawing closer to God—I learn that the numbing does not help but rather hinders real relationship. In this Lenten season I am personally being challenged to connect fully, without numbing, to my humanity and the humanity of others. It hurts, it is some of the hardest work we have to do—yet it is holy as it draws us closer to one another and to the One who created us all and calls us beloved.
As we enter into this week, may we do so as fully human. May we step into others’ pain and suffering and into their joy, laughter and love with our whole selves and may we find that Christ goes with us, Christ is already there, and that Christ surrounds us.
—Margaret Fleming
About the author
Margaret Fleming has been a member of Second Presbyterian Church since 2017. A native of Mt. Pleasant, she found herself back home after graduating from Columbia Theological Seminary in May 2020. She resides in Mt. Pleasant with her husband Will, a fourth-year medical student at MUSC. She is a candidate for ordination in the PCUSA and is currently serving as a Chaplain Resident at Roper Hospital.
Margaret will be preaching at Second Presbyterian Church on Sunday, March 21, 2021 and we are excited to host her ordination service on April 18, 2021.