How callous have we become to the cries of "help me!" which all surround? The "help me's" are often of such great frequency the temptation not to listen is so overwhelming they become drowned by similar cries within ourselves. It is indeed ironic in this Lenten time, a time when we seek to grow closer to our God of vulnerability, that we turn inward rather than profoundly seeking to make real the embracing love of God. Not to get too sanctimonious, I will admit there are times as your Canon Missioner the last thing I want to hear is "Father Joel, help me!" one more time. These times come for me when I cannot accept the feelings of susceptibility, weakness, and helplessness that often come in striving to make known the love of God. In those times I often seek retreat, i.e. getting away and maybe [at my worse times] even desiring to chuck it all!

I acknowledge there are moments when we must find places to renew and prepare ourselves for what's next, but never must they become places of escape. The call of God is into a risk-taking embracing relationship with God and all God's creation. Just as we in Lent and at other times seek places of renewal, Jesus had similar times in his life, but he always returned to make God's love more perfectly known. So too must we.

For Generation Xers, Lent might be seen as a time of reprogramming and updating our systems so we might live our lives more fully as God's children. For those of an earlier era Lent might be seen as a time of fine-tuning and overhauling our engines that we might live more fully as God's children.

The Rev. Joel Atkinson
Canon Missioner