Lent Self Study
Into the Wilderness
Find a notebook that you might use as a journey through Lent.
This may be a place for your personal reflections, prayers, thoughts and insights.
Week 3: Surprise
Into the Wilderness
Find a notebook that you might use as a journey through Lent.
This may be a place for your personal reflections, prayers, thoughts and insights.
Week 3: Surprise
Exodus 17:1-5
Waterfall of surprise
Directed by God, the whole company of Israel moved on by stages from the Wilderness of Sin. They set camp at Rephidim. And there wasn’t a drop of water for the people to drink. The people took Moses to task: “Give us water to drink.” But Moses said, “Why pester me? Why are you testing God?”
But the people were thirsty for water there. They complained to Moses, “Why did you take us from Egypt and drag us out here with our children and animals to die of thirst?”
Moses cried out in prayer to God, “What can I do with these people? Any minute now they’ll kill me!”
God said to Moses, “Go on out ahead of the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel. Take the staff you used to strike the Nile.
And go. I’m going to be present before you there on the rock at Horeb. You are to strike the rock. Water will gush out of it and the people will drink.”
Waterfall of surprise
Directed by God, the whole company of Israel moved on by stages from the Wilderness of Sin. They set camp at Rephidim. And there wasn’t a drop of water for the people to drink. The people took Moses to task: “Give us water to drink.” But Moses said, “Why pester me? Why are you testing God?”
But the people were thirsty for water there. They complained to Moses, “Why did you take us from Egypt and drag us out here with our children and animals to die of thirst?”
Moses cried out in prayer to God, “What can I do with these people? Any minute now they’ll kill me!”
God said to Moses, “Go on out ahead of the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel. Take the staff you used to strike the Nile.
And go. I’m going to be present before you there on the rock at Horeb. You are to strike the rock. Water will gush out of it and the people will drink.”
You can just imagine it, that big-numbered birthday…you open the door and people leap out of the darkness yelling, “surprise!” Some people are made for this moment, but some of us dread the idea of a surprise.
“I wish you hadn’t”, you might say, “really, I wish you hadn’t”.
I wonder if we’ve just gotten cynical about surprises. I wonder if it’s because we’ve hoped and waited to be surprised and it never came. We’ve stopped expecting, we’ve stopped hoping. Each day, each step is predictable. Tomorrow will be the same as today. But sad is the person who cannot be surprised anymore. But life makes us like that. Hard times, illness, struggles, hurtful relationships – all numb the hope for surprise. We lose sight of something different, something better. We can only see what’s in front of us and it can consume us. Even the Psalmist says to God, “Are we no more to you than a wispy dream, no more than a blade of grass?” (Psalm 90:4)
Question: What, do you think, has made you cynical?
Question: Can you think of some time in your life when you’ve hoped for a surprise and it just never came?
The truth is, the nature of a surprise is just that! If we expect a surprise then, well, it’s not a surprise. Surprise happens precisely when we do not expect it. That does not mean that we should not be on the lookout for surprising things. At the moment, all over the world, things are closing down – cinemas, parks, businesses, restaurants, borders, airlines, churches. We are being asked to change our pace, think how we interact with others, do things differently. Well, what if we use this time also to slow down, to create space - space to breathe, space to think about what’s really important to us, space to really connect. “Social distancing” is one of those new phrases that has entered our vocabulary in these last weeks. I wonder if we should think about it more as “creating space".
It’s when we create space for ourselves and our loved ones we begin to see good and surprising things right under our noses, right under our feet. The water was always behind the rock in the wilderness of the Moses story. The people had to stop their complaining and blaming and create the space for surprise before the water was revealed.
Think about this:
Look at this phrase in two ways – “creating space” … “creating space”
Question: Try slowing down this week, what surprises do you discover through each day that you never would have noticed before?
“I wish you hadn’t”, you might say, “really, I wish you hadn’t”.
I wonder if we’ve just gotten cynical about surprises. I wonder if it’s because we’ve hoped and waited to be surprised and it never came. We’ve stopped expecting, we’ve stopped hoping. Each day, each step is predictable. Tomorrow will be the same as today. But sad is the person who cannot be surprised anymore. But life makes us like that. Hard times, illness, struggles, hurtful relationships – all numb the hope for surprise. We lose sight of something different, something better. We can only see what’s in front of us and it can consume us. Even the Psalmist says to God, “Are we no more to you than a wispy dream, no more than a blade of grass?” (Psalm 90:4)
Question: What, do you think, has made you cynical?
Question: Can you think of some time in your life when you’ve hoped for a surprise and it just never came?
The truth is, the nature of a surprise is just that! If we expect a surprise then, well, it’s not a surprise. Surprise happens precisely when we do not expect it. That does not mean that we should not be on the lookout for surprising things. At the moment, all over the world, things are closing down – cinemas, parks, businesses, restaurants, borders, airlines, churches. We are being asked to change our pace, think how we interact with others, do things differently. Well, what if we use this time also to slow down, to create space - space to breathe, space to think about what’s really important to us, space to really connect. “Social distancing” is one of those new phrases that has entered our vocabulary in these last weeks. I wonder if we should think about it more as “creating space".
It’s when we create space for ourselves and our loved ones we begin to see good and surprising things right under our noses, right under our feet. The water was always behind the rock in the wilderness of the Moses story. The people had to stop their complaining and blaming and create the space for surprise before the water was revealed.
Think about this:
Look at this phrase in two ways – “creating space” … “creating space”
Question: Try slowing down this week, what surprises do you discover through each day that you never would have noticed before?
A Blessing in the Wilderness
May God,
who comes to us
in the things of this world,
bless your eyes
and be in your seeing.
May Christ,
who looks upon you
with deepest love,
bless your eyes
and widen your gaze.
May the Spirit,
who perceives what is
and what may yet be,
bless your eyes
and sharpen your vision.
May the Sacred Three
bless your eyes
and cause you to see.
Jan Richardson
May God,
who comes to us
in the things of this world,
bless your eyes
and be in your seeing.
May Christ,
who looks upon you
with deepest love,
bless your eyes
and widen your gaze.
May the Spirit,
who perceives what is
and what may yet be,
bless your eyes
and sharpen your vision.
May the Sacred Three
bless your eyes
and cause you to see.
Jan Richardson
Take us by the hand and lead us,
lead us through the desert sands,
bring us living water,
Holy Spirit, come.
(Hymn: Dust and Ashes, Brian Wren)
lead us through the desert sands,
bring us living water,
Holy Spirit, come.
(Hymn: Dust and Ashes, Brian Wren)
Copyright 2020 Suzanna Bates