I often speak of Lent as a journey. I see it as a walk with Christ toward Jerusalem. A time to gather thoughts, think things over and just mull. Long walks do that for a person. The other thing about long walks are crossroads, or junctures. Places where we make a choice. In his poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’ Robert Frost famously wrote, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood/ And sorry I could not travel both/And be one traveler, long I stood/ and looked down one as far as I could/ To where it bent in the undergrowth/ Then took the other, as just as fair.” The poem ends with “I took the one less travelled by/ and that has made all the difference.” Crossroads, making choices, in many ways that is what Lent is. Setting our compass and following.
I have been working this week on a final read-through of our congregation’s Annual Report before it goes to the printer and gets posted to our website. It is a year in review of the congregation’s ministry in a year like none other we have known. We came to many crossroads as we navigated our way through the last 12 months. Places where we have had to make choices. Some were not easy ones to make.
This morning, as I came to the church, I drove down the main street of our little town. Several stores and shops have sprouted ‘For Lease’ and ‘For Sale’ signs. I suspect this is the impact of long-term closures due to the pandemic. I can only imagine how difficult it has been for those people to confront that crossroad. Facing the decision as to whether to end their business in that location or try to keep things going.
Lent can be about little choices – Should I eat that chocolate? Should I have that drink?, having pledged not to do so during the season. But Lent can also be about big choices – Can I seek a life of greater service and firmer discipleship? Can I bind myself closer to Christ as a disciple? And, sometimes Lent is less about the crossroads and more about the walk between them. The walk that can feel like trudging on some days or gaily skipping on other days; a walk that can be sure and certain on some days but hesitant and faltering on others.
On long journeys, it is often the crossroads that make the trip interesting. A moment to stop, to consider the choice – this way or that, to change plans, to choose a new route, to continue on. Lent is the time of spiritual journeying, a long walk with Jesus. Let’s enjoy the meander, the sojourn, the wander, the ramble. We have time to stop at the crossroads and think about our choices. There are only a few days behind us and many days ahead. Happy Lent. Faithful journeying. Blessings at the crossroads.
