Working Order

First i must say to anyone who was stuck on the GW Parkway in Alexandria and Arlington this morning - take a deep breath this blog is going to hurt. It was bad when I came back - I saw you all sitting there and I felt bad because I knew what I was going to write today.

I knew because I couple of hours earlier when I had sailed up the same strip of tarmac which was now imprisoning you it was wonderful - the lights were all sequenced through Old Town and everything ran wonderfully. I hardly stopped until I got into the District and even then I got where I was going without a single problem - there was even parking at the other end!

And this is seemed was a metaphor for Lent - this is where we aim to be - no, not driving a gas guzzling car in a big city but getting where we need to go smoothly and without a whole lot of effort. When our souls are clean and sparkly and we are able to pay attention to the Holy Spirit life can feel like those lights which are sequenced and magically change to green one after the other.

The crashes this morning would offer me fuel for dysfunction but my original thought was to reflect on the same trip on a Saturday when those same lights are not set to change one after the other in a careful, commuter-caring, order but seem to randomly and amost vindictively turn red just as you reach about half way to the speed limit. Throw in pedestrians, Saturday drivers, parked cars and some catastrophe and you have a disorganised and time consuming drive.

Perhaps this is not the best example after all but there is something I do like about those ten or so traffic lights which all change in sequence , an order and neatness and convenience which I crave.

Lent won't give us everything on a platter but perhaps it will give us that early morning driving feeling of peace and contentment that you can sometimes get - even in the Metro area - perhaps through the blessing of a good soul-scrubbing we can really connect anew with Christ and the machinery of our spiritual life can run smoothly.