A friend of mine is a weatherman.
You should see his office.
On one wall there’s a bank of computers.
Another wall is filled with TV monitors that give him live shots of every part of town.
He has these huge printers that are constantly churning out data-
-forecasting models, dopler radar, National Weather Service alerts, and historic trending data-
Everything chugs along with unbelievable efficiency until that one day, when the power surge hits, and the whole thing goes down.
That’s because the one thing my friend the weatherman does not have in his office is a window.

This Sunday we hear about something similar. We hear about religious experts, people who’ve dedicated their lives to knowing God, to following God, to setting up endless guidelines to keep them close to God. Yet we hear how, when the power surge comes, when their framework fries, they can’t tell that God almighty has shown up.

It’s something that happens to us all – as we try to lead our lives dedicated to loving God and our neighbors. We form opinions, cultivate virtues, and get into habits. We do the best we can to make ourselves more aware of, and enhance this vision of eternal life, of boundless love that has embraced our hearts, of the utterly hopeful picture of life we’re given as disciples of Jesus.

Yet, when the power surge hits – a divorce, job loss, bad investment, sickness, you name it – and these frameworks of church attendance, being a good person, or the number of times we’ve read the Bible are all we’ve got – this is when we, too, can lose faith. It’s because it’s not about the things that point us to God, it’s about God. It’s about that living, breathing relationship we have with Jesus.

In what ways have we allowed our well-meaning habits, opinions, virtues, and practices to keep us from the heartbeat of God? And what do we need to do, in this Lenten season, to get back to it?

Reading:
The Last Train from Hiroshima – Charles Pellegrino
The Celtic Way of Evangelism – George Hunter
The Future of Faith – Harvey Cox