LENT DAY 13

This is something a little different.

Until now, I have used the Journal page to post photo essays. While I still very much love photography and see the world through that lens (pun intended), I would like to open up this space to include written thoughts, essays, murmurings. Personal notes. They may be of a political / personal / religious nature so if that does not interest you or offends you, be forewarned.

This site is a space for me to share as well as record. Whether that is a recipe or a summer in Finland, that is why I pay x amount a year to keep up this site. I do not make money from this site. I guess it’s a bit of a luxury I spend on myself now that I am not actively making money from photography. I view this site as a less temporary version of my Insta story, a place where snapshots of my life can be up uploaded, regardless of audience.

All that to say, in the case there is an audience, I wanted to mention that I am writing this piece not as a photographer or creator of content, but as a person who was reading her bible this morning and praying through this Lent season.

I am currently reading through C. S. Lewis’ Weight of Glory. Also read Psalm 33 this morning as part of my Lent devotional.

Psalm 33: 8 - 9

Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.

Psalm 33 speaks to God’s magnificence and power as Creator of the universe, and invites us to participate in the earth’s worship of God and stand in awe and fear of Him. And in Mark, we are reminded that Jesus is Creator God.

And Mark 4: 38 - 41

Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to drown?”

When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Silence! Be still!” Suddenly the wind stopped, and there was a great calm. 

Then he asked them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

The disciples were absolutely terrified. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “Even the wind and waves obey him!”

In Mark 4, the disciples are in the middle of the sea during a storm and they are afraid. Yet, when they see that Jesus calms the storm, has power over nature, the disciples are no longer afraid of the storm but instead are afraid of Jesus. They wonder who this man is that nature obeys him as nature obeys the God of Psalm 33. Why are the disciples of afraid? Could this Jesus be the God of Moses, whose glory was so great that when Moses asked to see God’s glory, God said :

Exodus 33: 19 - 23

And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

The God of the Old Testament who is eternal and before time, who placed the stars in the heavens, and separated the seas from the dry land, the God who emancipated Israel out of slavery from Egypt, and led them through the wilderness, that God is the God the disciples experienced on the boat that day. And that is the God Lewis remembers when he writes about the weight of glory as the weight of being known by God. He writes that God’s glory is greater even than the sublime awe we feel when we stand before nature, beauty, magnificence. For nature worships and gives glory to God.

Psalm 19:1

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.
The skies display his craftsmanship.

The weight of glory is being known by God, being known and loved and adored by the God who created the heavens and the earth. And not only are we allowed to know God, but we are invited into His glory. The spirit of God lives in Christians. And yet, as Augustine says, we carry our mortality and evidence of sin about with us. It is in this space we as Christians are called to live. Not only as ones who have victory in the resurrection of Christ, but as ones who live knowing their only hope and joy is Jesus Christ. Job who endured the loss of everything was loved by God and King David who had so much was loved by God. The Christ who suffered on the cross is the Christ who rose again. We are called to live knowing we have victory over death even as we carry death with us, knowing that God’s glory is so great we cannot face it. Yet Christ lived among us, knowing the kingdom is here but not yet, and knowing grace is a free gift of God, one which we can do nothing to deserve and yet require to have relationship with God. Lent is a season of repentance, of remembering our separation from God and asking God for mercy. As Christians, we live in the assurance of our salvation, that nothing can separate us from the love of God, and knowing our salvation rests on a foundation of God’s mercy.

When God reminds Israel of all that He has done for them in Micah, they ask what they can do.

Micah 6:6

What can we bring to the Lord?
Should we bring him burnt offerings?

And what does God say?

Micah 6:8

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.