Thirsting for the Lord
Lent 3 – March 23, 2025
Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9
While we might agree with our psalmist for today, that God’s steadfast love is greater than life, we do not always live our lives that way. As I have said many times before, when times are good and things are happening the way we desire, we forget God. We even credit the good times to our own effort and skill. If we do remember God it is to claim that we have been so good that God has rewarded us with all that we have. When times are bad we do not think that it is our own fault and blame God for the horrible things that happen. The truth might be the other way around. The psalmist is not talking about those things whether we are in trouble or not. He is talking about all of life. That God’s steadfast love is greater than life because it surrounds us every moment of our lives.
It is very easy in our society to forget about God when times are good. There are so many things that attract us and countless opportunities to be entertained and beguiled that we forget who we are and the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. And when you allow the world to distract you from the steadfast love of God during the good times you are ill prepared to experience that same love when tragedy and crisis come to us. This struggle to realize God’s steadfast love in our lives starts with our misunderstanding of freedom and bondage. We know that we have been set free by Christ from the bondage of sin. While that means we do not have to qualify for God’s love by following a list of do’s and don’ts, it does not mean that anything goes. God’s freedom is the freedom to love. It is the freedom to help other people. It is the freedom to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. God has not surrounded us with God’s steadfast love so that we can hoard what we have and abuse other people. God has freed us from the bondage of selfishness, idolatry, racism, and nationalism which separates us from God’s love.
That is what Lent is about – to remind us what God has given and what we are called to do with it. The discipline of Lent is meant to do just that. During Lent we are called to prayer, fasting, and acts of love in order to remind ourselves the great chasm that is between how we live our lives and how Jesus lived his and, hopefully, by this Lenten discipline we learn to live simple lives filled with prayer and overabundant with acts of love. That is the life Jesus lived. So look around your life and see where you have pushed away God’s steadfast love and pray for God’s guidance on how you will use all the gifts God has so abundantly given you to show and share that steadfast love that God has for you and the whole world.