Lenten reflection often stirs up in me this kind of eager anticipation, even while I feel the lingering bite of a cold wind. Lent holds death and life for us. Nasty ashes on our foreheads, hunger pains and giving up treats, and at church the doom, gloom and boom, boom, boom of nails through flesh into wood, alongside with: candles in darkness, bright colours discovered in the grass, and a new tomb, with the rock rolled back for us to see its emptiness. We smash up our attachments to creature comforts during Lent, only because we are so close to the brilliant and sustaining reality of the Resurrection – the definitive answer to sin and death. Even at our worst, we can’t keep God’s love from coming back to us at Easter time. Even the worst we’ve seen, comes back as the best there is.
This past week, we sensed something new in the air. Warmer weather seemed to knock a crack in winter’s grip. We saw ice melt, breathed the scent of wet earth, felt sun warm on our faces. We might still have a ways to go, but we are headed for Spring. For us as Christians, also, we have a ways to go, and we are headed to the excitement and celebration of new life. We do this often, finding in the Created world the rhythms and blessings of life with the Creator. And so it is with our present season, Lent, in which we hold on to hope as we journey up to and through the cold darkness of Christ’s Cross to the warmth and light of Easter morning.
Lenten reflection often stirs up in me this kind of eager anticipation, even while I feel the lingering bite of a cold wind. Lent holds death and life for us. Nasty ashes on our foreheads, hunger pains and giving up treats, and at church the doom, gloom and boom, boom, boom of nails through flesh into wood, alongside with: candles in darkness, bright colours discovered in the grass, and a new tomb, with the rock rolled back for us to see its emptiness. We smash up our attachments to creature comforts during Lent, only because we are so close to the brilliant and sustaining reality of the Resurrection – the definitive answer to sin and death. Even at our worst, we can’t keep God’s love from coming back to us at Easter time. Even the worst we’ve seen, comes back as the best there is.
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TODAY is the last day the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons is receiving feedback on a new policy.
The new policy: if the college thinks it impacts patient "health or well-being" a doctor must deliver a medical procedure that the doctor thinks is morally wrong or the doctor could lose the license to practice medicine. So a doctor must disregard what they understand to be right and wrong in order to be a doctor in Saskatchewan. |
AuthorRyan LeBlanc, B.A., B.Ed., M.A, is a career classroom teacher, learning leader, and workshop facilitator. Now, his cutting-edge educational methods and years of practical experience with thousands of learners are available through his comprehensive online courses. Categories
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