A Lenten Fast to Live By, Lent study 2024, week 6
When my daughter was a baby and I would rock her to try to get her to sleep, I would take my cue by watching her little hands. If her hands were clenched tight in a fist, I knew she was still fighting sleep. When her hands unclenched and were relaxed, it meant she had given up and was sleeping.
Christine Valters Paintner says something like that in chapter 6 of A Different Kind of Fast. She calls us to even give up our images of God. “We are called to let go of ‘God’ in the service of meeting the Great Mystery of the divine beyond our understanding,” says Paintner (pg 198). We need to let mystery have a place within us. It is the way of unknowing, of “loosening of our attachment to images of God and how God works in the world” (pg 200).
In this, we heed the call of the desert mothers and fathers to let go, let go, let go, for “God is never a set of concepts to be understood and grasped, but a relationship to encounter” (pg 201). We like to seek and probe and try to find answers, but we are called to hold space for mystery within us.
As you read this week, think about the places where you especially need to “let go” and how that would help you rest in the mystery and grow closer to God.
For reflection:
What are the aspects of your life where you especially crave certainty?
What are some of your images of God? How easy or difficult is it for you to let go of them?
Has there ever been a time of your life when what unfolded was even better than what you could have imagined?
To practice this week:
Of the practices Paintner offers each week, which ones do you most resonate with? Can you make a plan to incorporate them into your daily or weekly spiritual routine?
If there is a practice you have not tried during this study, do so this week.
As we close this study, the book includes an additional section titled “Living the Wisdom Forward,” pages 219-227. It offers suggestions for implementing regular practices into your spiritual journey. We suggest you spend some time with that chapter on your own.
The Wisdom Years 