Dearly beloved,

We are just over halfway through the Lenten season (Holy Week and Easter are just a few weeks away). How is your Lenten discipline going?

Like New Year’s resolutions, it can be difficult to keep to our commitments. Often we find that once we have “failed”, we totally give us. Yet, whether it is Lent or not, this can be indicative of our daily lives as well. I try and “fail” regularly. But like that children’s rhyme, we are invited to “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and try all over again”.

It is in the falling as well as the trying that we find God. It is here that we encounter the grace of God. We are not judged harshly for our failures, but looked on lovingly as Jesus reaches out his hand to draw us up again. God gives us grace – we need to do the same with ourselves as well as others.

If your practice has been found wanting, try again. Or try something else. Or not. Whatever you chose, know that God’s love and grace meets us there! That is the hallmark of our faith and our relationship with Jesus.

Believe and trust in the amazing love and grace of Christ Jesus!

Peace in Christ, Pastor Jend,