Reflection

 

As we enter these forty days of Lent, I contemplated what our focus should be.  How do we navigate these forty days as we walk with Jesus to the events of Easter?  I decided to select a word each week, hoping we will be able to focus our attention during this time of Lent.  The first one will be the word reflection.  The dictionary definition provides us with ‘serious thought or consideration, meditation.’  It is this thought and consideration that we will be focusing on.

Reflection is on many people’s minds, especially as we walked through these past two years.  As many of us were forced home, without much outside interaction, giving us time to review our lives.

·        Were we fulfilled with our careers?

·        Was family time a priority, gathering our loved ones together for simple things like a family dinner?

·        Did we focus on our health?

·        Was ‘keeping up with our neighbors’ more important than ‘keeping our family together”?

As a result, people made changes in their lives.  Some people quit their jobs to pursue their passions.  Others made family a priority and focused on spending time together versus seeing how many activities could be jammed into 24 hours.  Others began bringing exercise and activity into their days, and a heightened sense of less processed foods and more home-grown foods.  Taking time for reflection can help us to see what is happening in our lives instead of continuing habits that may not be good for us.

Spending time in reflection, seeing ourselves and our lives in a mirror, can also give us much as we gain to have a closer relationship to Jesus.  When I reflect upon my life, things I have done and things I have not done, it certainly is not the life I would lift up to Jesus all too quickly.  Seeing myself, looking in the mirror, I see my sins, the actions and the thoughts that are not pleasing to my Lord.  Reflection also lets me see the times when my actions were good in Jesus’ eyes and provided help and assistance to those around me. 

During reflection, we can spend time reviewing our actions, our thoughts, and our feelings.  During this time, we can determine the changes we want to make in our lives to reflect our faith more boldly in Jesus.  What have we done, or thought or said that would be pleasing to God?  What have we done that deserves us offering an apology and repenting our sins?  Charging through our days without moments of reflection and simple faith does not provide us the opportunity to gain a closer relationship with Jesus.  When we reflect, we can see if our hearts are filled with the word of Jesus and our simple faith in the love He gives to us, giving us the ability to love others.  During this Lenten season, find time to build the habit of reflection into your day.  May that reflection lead us closer to Jesus, so on the day we meet Him face to face, our faith will be revealed.

Dearest Jesus, during this Lenten season, may I spend time in reflection.  Help me to see myself in the mirror and hold myself accountable to the person you want me to be.  Help me to make the changes necessary to live in simple faith of your love in my life.  Amen.