Starter Prayer:  "God of all Authority, I place my trust in you, which is often to feel alone and without reassurance on this earth."

"You do not see any of the Sanhedrin believing in him, do you?  Or the Pharisees? Only this lot that knows nothing about the law--and they are lost anyway!...And each went off to his own house."
John 7:48, 52

Is there a noose tightening during these final weeks of Lent?  As the momentum grows and the realization that death is the door to lasting transformation, fear and insecurity gain energy.  This is not pretty.  This is beginning to feel like a risk gone bad.   This is about losing everything.  

Nobody is going to wave a magic wand and get us out of the situation at hand.  No power or authority can expedite or induce new life.   We need to go through the fear, the pangs, the loss.

What areas of private or communal life are struggling with "becoming new" this 2014?  I see it happening everywhere -- in family, society and in the church.  

I could stop now and just let the season and the calendar take me to other things (spring is here, the season is changing, so many other things could be embraced!)   That would put me in the company of those who "went off to (their) own house."

But I am hearing Jesus say "follow me" -- and I still hear God saying "This is my son, the beloved, listen to him."

So I will.  I will pray the starter prayer and ask God's help when I feel alone and without reassurance on this earth.