Lent 1 - Risk the journey with me?

Each year I like to have a focus for my blog and this year I'm basing my blogs on the MWiB's (don't know who they are? I blogged about them here) Easter Offering lent reflections. All of which can be found here. My blog will be my thoughts and musings on each weeks reflection - there is also a more in depth Bible Study,  I'm not using them. I should also point out the views are my own, not necessarily those of MWiB as a whole!

 

Are you with me?

Each week has an image and questions to ponder. Week one is about journeys and has this painting. First Snow by Sarah Pye.

I've been on some physical journeys recently and had a number of travelling companions. My journey home from the Connecting Disciples conference started with a taxi ride with two people, and as they got on a train someone else joined me, this companion was someone I'd noticed early in the week but never had a chance to talk to, she was knitting which is how I noticed her. In our conversation we found out we had very similar jobs and only started recently. Together we successfully navigate Tottenham Hale station to get the tube,  2 stops later I had to leave her as we went our separate ways. This station I came across someone else, who had popped into my conference on Tuesday before having to go off elsewhere. This companion and I had a chat at the station and then due to some confusion on my part because the first class carriage was in front of where we were standing, we ended up in different carriages for the short journey. Getting off at the next station we reunited before his train home arrived.

After that my journey companions remained as strangers. Though that doesn't mean they didn't leave an impression,  the woman opposite me spent much of the 2ish hour journey laughing at something on her tablet and the man next to her was sleeping.

After a quick dash across a large station, including giving up waiting for the lift and moving quickly down the stairs with my heavy suitcase. I eventually made it home, and even ordered take away while on the train - isn't technology clever.

Looking at this image I wonder at what stage of the journey it is. It's getting brighter as you get further in. Maybe you are currently in the wood and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm mixing metaphors on purpose. On Monday I was in a friends car and she held her breath while we were going through a tunnel - she would have managed it if I hadn't made her laugh. Maybe sometimes we are holding our breath and the light just ahead of them means everything might just get a bit easier and we can breathe easy again.

The image is called first snow, I love walking in snow. Making my footprints stick. I was walking in the snow while it was still falling earlier in the year, that was less satisfying.

I'm looking forward to journeying through lent, I hope each week I will become more enlightened as the path becomes brighter as we "risk the path he trod" to the cross.

I'll end with the prayer from the resource.

Jesus, you know what it is to walk alone and to walk with friends.  As we enter this journey of Lent, give us the space we need to breathe and grow and learn; yet assure us that we are not abandoned in the wood.  May your peace settle upon us as the snow, absorbing our fear and pain and sorrow. Amen.