Yesterday afternoon I spent some time with this man, a friend of mine who I interact with at the Network House on Wednesday evenings. We kept each other company a bit but I couldn't help being preoccupied during our chat by the reflection of the church in the windows directly over his head. So, at the end of our time he was more than happy to allow me to capture the image.
After pondering the results from the snapshot and the variety of possible metaphors a couple things stood out initially. First, the "One Way" street sign which made me think of...
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)
And then my friend along with his sign makes me think of...
"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40)
So, then I got to thinking is my way to the Father through friends such as this brother and other disregarded "least of these" like him? Even at the risk of sounding quite formulaic about this... If I'm to see my time with this man as if it were time with Jesus himself then in some mysterious way he and other men and women who resign themselves to holding signs on street corners may in fact be the way, the truth, and the life for us. And if these days leading up to Easter are to be occasions for me to connect with the humanity and wounds of Jesus perhaps it's the most disregarded friends like this man that I need to be in intentional communion with.
Lastly, I want to share this Lenten prayer that was passed on to me by my friend, Jeff Johnsen, that seems to somehow be on the same track...
Come, O Life-giving Creator,
and rattle the door latch
of my slumbering heart.
Awaken me as you breathe upon
a winter-wrapped earth,
gently calling to life virgin Spring.
Awaken in these fortified days
of Lenten prayer and discipline
my youthful dream of holiness.
Call me forth from the prison camp
of my numerous past defeats
and my narrow patterns of being
to make my ordinary life extra-ordinarily alive,
through the passion of my love.
Show to me during these Lenten days
how to take the daily things of life
and by submerging them in the sacred,
to infuse them with a great love
for you, O God, and for others.
Guide me to perform simple acts of love and prayer,
the real works of reform and renewal
of this overture to the spring of the Spirit.
O Father of Jesus, Mother of Christ,
help me not to waste
these precious Lenten days
of my soul’s spiritual springtime.
~ Edward Hays, Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim
Recent Comments