Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ -John 8.12

“Cows make me happy”

A couple of weeks ago, we were in Greeneville,TN. welcoming springtime on the farm. While we were driving up the gravel road to the main house, Amos looked into the valley below and unprompted said, “Mama, cows make me happy.” A wide grin spread across his face and his voice, though full of unencumbered joy, was at the same time pregnant with reverence for this most beloved animal.

Lent is a season in which we focus on our spiritual blindness. It also reminds us, as I was reminded in a recent sermon, that “we do not have to be the person that we have become.”

Faith is a process of sanctification–the process of ever-becoming holy, which both free from all things human is at its most naked, purely human. Amos, most often my greatest teacher, in his one impassioned declaration, reminded me it is possible that the Lenten journey can extend beyond the grey of the wilderness. It is possible that joy can be.

That which keeps me from joy is my spiritual blindness. Gratitude, which through occurrences-either conscious or unconscious leads me to the deepest peace, helps me traverse the wilderness of realization. Lent is about seeing. Sometimes with sight there is necessary sorrow and sometimes there is joy akin to a small child seeing a cow.

Peace,

Hope