Rev. Walke’s husband was sworn in as an Oklahoma State legislator. Her reflections on the experience and suggestions for the overtly Christian in their propensity to govern based on their faith experience is worth a few minutes.
At the time, I anticipated that these very public declarations of faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus would result in the most family-friendly and community-minded legislative session our state has ever seen. Surely all of these self-identified Christian lawmakers would author legislation reflective of Jesus’ mission to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free.
The Christian drama begins another episode as we wander into and through Lent. We’ve been here before, and yet, each year our baggage is stuffed with different experiences, questions, and needs. Each novice and apprentice is seeking to mature in their discipleship. How will Lent influence you this year?
It is my practice to add a discipline to my life during Lent. This year, I’ve had trouble identifying a discipline and I’m not sure what to attribute this indecision. In the past, the discipline found me as much as I identified it. The discipline cut through the noise and created a silence like what I experience when I’m wearing my noise canceling headphones. That hasn’t happened yet.
So, for me, I’m thinking Lent is going to be like the closing sequence of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” Indiana’s father lies on the ground having been shot by the villain, Donovan, which is the motivation for Indy going deeper into a shrine in search of the Holy Grail. The elder Jones, groaning in pain from the gunshot, looks up to see Donovan tell Indiana, “You’ve got to ask yourself, ‘What do you believe?'” That’s a good question for me right now about a great many things.
Indy takes his dad’s Grail diary and heads deeper into the protected shrine where trials await those who seek the Grail.
And then, this scene.
I don’t know where you are, or how you are, entering Lent this year. I enter Lent with hints about the way of Jesus and how I might follow that way more authentically. It’s dangerous. It always has been. That’s where I am as Jesus invites me to go on a walk, again.