Presby-Musings

Today is the first Sunday of the season of Lent, the season that leads us to Holy Week and to Easter Sunday.  The word "Lent" is derived from the Latin word for "forty" and denotes the forty days between Ash Wednesday and Easter.  Why forty?  Forty, according to some Biblical scholars is a number that is connected to trial, testing, trouble or hardship.   In the Genesis account, God made it rain 40 days and 40 nights. Moses spent 40 years in the desert until he finally saw the burning bush.  The people of Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty hears.  Goliath taunted the people of Israel for 40 days until David killed him.  The list goes on and on.   Jesus was tempted in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights.  There was also 40 days between Jesus resurrection and ascension.  So it seems kind of natural considering all of this emphasis on the number 40 that there would be 40 days in a season where we are called to ref...

This week I've been traveling some old paths as I have been driving all over the city of Chicago.  Essentially, four years of my life were spent here when I was going to seminary and serving as a youth director in Evanston, just north of the city.   It's funny, but it doesn't take you long to remember those old paths when you return to a place you knew so well.  Without even noticing it, I began driving without my GPS yesterday as I went from one place to the other.  I just kind of knew where to go.   I also began remembering little things from the past. A vivid memory of a walk in the park with my oldest son rushed back to me.  I saw the neighborhood where we took our kids trick-or-treating on a bitterly cold Halloween.  The park where my middle son crawled on a blanket when he was not yet a year old.  Those memories, and the places where they were made are all a part of me, but I am different than I was then.  I've changed and grow...