PALM SUNDAY, MARCH 24

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? (Matthew 6:27) And be assured, I am with you always, even to the end of time. (Matthew 28:20)

Not Alone

The first quarter of a new year is a busy time for us, a time of reflection and rededication, of list making and determining what has been accomplished and what needs to be accomplished in the coming months. It can be a delicate time.

The 40 days of Lent stand between us and the joys of Easter. Advent and the Christmas Season are long gone and we look forward to weeks of a late midwinter – that season Christina Rossetti called bleak and hard as iron.

Bills and taxes a wait our attention. Another year has slipped by and not every goal has been achieved. We’re another year older and, as Tennessee Ernie used to intone, possibly deeper in debt. What should we give up? What should we do? How can we make our lives most beneficial for ourselves and for others?

We can choose to look to the future positively, confident that challenges will be met and that all will be done that needs to be done. Or, wrongfully feeling overwhelmed and alone, mindful that some problems resist our choice of solution, we can expect defeat and failure. A popular song lyric says it well: Some days are diamonds, Some days are coal. (John Denver)

When my coal days hit, I recall prayers from two very different men, men who faced trials and tribulations every bit as serious as any I am likely to face. And they faced those trials with full confidence and faith that they were by no means alone and that they had every reason to expect success.

The first prayer is that of Sir Jacob Astley, a Royalist Officer in the English Civil War:

O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day.

If I forget Thee, do not forget me.

The second is that fabulous prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Lent truly is a time of reflection and dedication for all of us. We are not alone. Easter is at hand. Be of good cheer. Thanks be to God.

Mary Kay and Paul Sparre