Unintentional Lent

Lent 2012 is winding down as we enter Holy Week. The time has gone quickly, in part because it has been a busy few weeks – a trip to Nashville for the United Methodist Committee on Faith and Order followed immediately by the United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Our Minnesota delegation to the United Methodist General Conference has met twice. There have also been funerals. One of the funerals brought an unintentional discipline into my life this Lent.

We Shake with Joy Mary Oliver, Evidence

We shake with joy, we shake with grief.
What a time they have, these two
housed as they are in the same body.

I read this poem as a part of my reflection for the funeral of a little girl named Lucy June, born December 13, 2011 and died February 28, 2012. The poem helped me frame some of what I was experiencing as I thought about this little girl whose brief life touched mine and many others. I hoped it might help others frame their experience as well. We shake with joy. We shake with grief.
Lent is supposed to be a time when we remember our humanity and our mortality. We will all shake with grief sometime. Lent is supposed to be a time to recall the grace of God which touches our lives – we shake with joy, the joy of new life, however brief, and love shared. What a time they have, these two, housed as they are in the same body. My body. Your body.
This poem pressed itself upon me. It persisted in my consciousness. It would not let me go until I memorized it – unintentional Lenten discipline. When these disciplines work well, they give us resources for living life more deeply in God’s grace, which has been a gift of this poem.

With Faith and With Feathers,

David