Lent Meditation Day 4
Today’s question comes from John the Baptist to Jesus. “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
A Note from Ruth
These meditations are a reflection of my personal journey through Lent at a time when I was experiencing deep spiritual growth and learning what it means to grow in community as a student at the Academy for Formation and Mission. In part, I wrote them to process my own thoughts, but mainly to share those contemplations, because I felt they were meant to be experienced by others. My hope was to encourage others to go deep, to see God and Lent with a new perspective, and to self-reflect in a way that brings hope.
John was in prison and facing the end of his life when he sent this inquiry to Jesus. The earlier John, the one who baptized our Lord at the Jordan river, proclaimed in front of the crowds that Jesus was indeed the promised one from God.
What happened to cause John’s doubt when he was once confident? What happens in my life that makes me wonder if God is really who I think God is? Sometimes things go wrong, sometimes terribly wrong, like they did for John, and we question God.
I don’t think these question surprise God. In fact, I think God rather likes them, because they show that we are wrestling with God like Jacob did one night in the darkness of a cave. At the breaking of the dawn, God gave Jacob a new name, Israel. God marked Jacob forever as one who contended with God.
Perhaps wrestling with God when we face doubt and feel like we can’t see the way out is the best thing we can do. Morning will come, and we will be forever and deeply changed.