When my best friend was beginning to heal from her car accident, we watched a PBS documentary about a team from Crystal Bridges Museum who travelled the US discovering less than famous artists. Curious, we did a little research and found that an exhibit of 61 of the artists would be at my favorite museum in the world, Crystal Bridges in Bentonville, Arkansas. During Lent! As part of my friend’s healing hopefulness, we planned a trip to see the exhibit seven months later.
So here we are. In Bentonville, Arkansas. For the first weekend in Lent.
Seriously injured by a drunk driver who hit her car and then fled the scene, my friend went from being couch bound to wheel chair to walker. As she was finally well enough to travel, she had to learn to navigate an airport via being wheeled by strangers.
Seven months later, my friend is able to walk independently to her airport gate and yesterday hit a milestone of nearly 9,000 steps. Museums will do that!
She is never pain free and is learning how to live in a new body.
It is how we are all invited to do Lent.
Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. (Nido Qubei)
And so we begin again. Perhaps with uncertainty. Fear. Suffering. Pain.
Perhaps with hope. Faith. Joy.
Most likely with a soup containing some of each.
Perhaps that’s why parish soup suppers are a mainstay of Lent.
House of Grace 