Lent: Day Thirty-Four

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.  And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”  Matthew 7:24-27

​The neighborhood that we live in has had a lot of new construction going on, each with developers expressing their design choices and new plans for the use of space and their profit margins.

Many of these projects look to me like they are total teardowns. They are demolished buildings that were old and outdated and in their place, something new is being built back up.

Now, taking all but a wall down of some place and leveling the rest, then rebuilding everything around it and calling it a remodel is using the absolute broadest and/or loosest definition of the term- but that’s not the point.

The point is that if we think of this concept in terms of lent and we are the ones being remodeled- it makes a really nice illustration.

During Lent, we take a piece of ourselves and allow it to stand as our original structure but everything else around it is torn away, rebuilt as we might want it to look going forward etc. then by this definition of drastic change or ‘remodel,’ you might say we’d have a new house by the time Easter comes!

And given that once we have done the work, prepared it, landscaped it, make it all pretty- we then proudly show it to others. That is sort of a wonderful way to think of how lent can rebuild and remodel our faith and our expression of it.

Prayer:  Dear God, It is comforting in troubled situations to remember that you are rock solid. You are totally dependable and your words will always help me. Today I ask for grace so that I will always trust in you to rebuild me – no matter what may fall apart in my life.

​St Ignatius remarks that love is found in deeds rather than in words. Jesus praises good deeds over good intentions that are not carried out. I pray to be like a good servant who does the work assigned me by God.

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Thank you to 
​Kathleen Walsh Macdonald
​for her words and insights. ​

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