To what are we paying attention and from what are we being distracted? As millions prepare to engage in the practice of lent, what might we consider letting go of? What might we consider embracing?

In her book, This Here Flesh, Cole Arthur Riley wrote in her first chapter called Dignity, “What does evil have to gain in tricking us into believing we are anything less than glorious? I would venture to guess it swallows our belonging first; after all, a person does not wish to be seen if they believe they are ugly. We hide our faces and settle down in the treacherous place of nowhere. And then it colonizes our body, knowing we will flee from it out of deep shame and embarrassment. Self-hatred moves in. It makes a mockery of our limbs, twisting and contorting them for its own means. And last, I believe, it steals our love. For who can accept love that they do not believe exists for them? Those who believe love is a scarcity are less prone to give it away freely.”

For many of us, it is hard work to claim an inner love with the inundation of messages to the contrary. What might be you do today to offer yourself a little tenderness? What might your family dinner conversation include or leave out if tenderness for each other was the aspiration? Living well can be hard work.

There is much that is broken in the world and so many of us want to be able to do something to stop the violence, to change systems of oppression, to usher capitalism towards its end with a more holistic economic strategy, or even just to make the hurting in our own hearts stop.

Riley also wrote in that same book in the same first chapter on dignity, “Our liberation begins with the irrevocable belief that we are worthy to be liberated, that we are worthy of a life that does not degrade us but honors our whole selves. When you believe in your dignity, or at least someone else does, it becomes more difficult to remain content with the bondage with which you have become so acquainted. You begin to wonder what you were meant for.”

May vision, justice, and mercy lead you into this tender day. May they speak through you in all you do and say.

In faith,

Rev. Wendy and Rev. Lynn