Lenten Devotions 6

Now that Lent has come and gone and we are now officially into the season of Easter, I want to do something I meant to do throughout Lent. As you may know, Fourth Church puts out daily devotions that are available via email, on the website, or in print each week. Most of the time, these are written by members of the Fourth Church staff. During special seasons of the church year, like Lent, we also invite members of the congregation to contribute to these. This year's Lent devotions were excellent, and several of them were written by Fourth Church youth or adults associated with the youth program. As something of a Lenten retrospective, I want to post these Fourth Church Youth devotions on this blog, in case you missed them before. Thanks to all who worked hard on writing these!

Scripture Reading: Mark 2:1–12

Reflection
No doubt, Jesus himself must have looked up too. And what did he see? No, Jesus was not struck by the demolition of the ceiling, but he saw their faith—not their faces, but their faith!

What have you never seen before?

Jesus is liberating the one who is paralyzed, and in the process a new kind of community is being created. Because when God is set loose in the world, then God sets about creating a community of compassion, grace, liberation, and hope. God’s mission is “to empower all people to experience the presence of God, to grow toward wholeness, and to act in love.” When Jesus performs these signs and wonders, the people are astonished because they’ve never seen anything like this. But in these moments their eyes are opened, and they can see who Jesus is. May we too have our eyes open to see God’s new work in the world and at our church. May our prejudices be revealed, our barriers broken down, so that God’s inclusive community might be created in our midst. And that will be the greatest wonder of them all. Bear in faith, there are still miracles to be made and people to be saved. Trust in the Lord whom we cannot see, because he can see you; he sees us, and he sees me.

Prayer
Lord Father God, help me to remember that on this day I am too blessed to be stressed and too anointed to be disappointed! Your love and mercy overflows more and more with knowledge and full insight to help me determine what is best. With assurance and faith in your words, never will you leave me, never will you forsake me. In Jesus Christ, Amen.

Written by Florence Adibu, Fourth Church Youth senior in high school