Lent JourneySample

DAY 17
Woman, there is your son!

It must be traumatic for a mother to hear these words from a son. How can her own child expect her to look after another child as one of her own? Jesus’ words accomplish a huge shift in that specific moment – a change in the relationship that is necessary for Him to be able to do what is laid before Him. It is a ‘letting go’ a ‘leaving each other’ for both mother and son.

In our culture I see something of the ‘leaving’ in marriages. When a man and a woman marry, they must both leave their parents to work on their relationship, the commitment they have taken up. This happens in my other relationships as well, and it is sometimes very difficult to ‘let go’.

Jesus says that if I want to follow Him, I must be prepared to leave my father and mother (Mark 10:29). I see and hear it in his conversations when He gathered his followers. It is as if a new phase started in their lives, whereby a shift or a leaving must take place before they can focus on the task they were called to.

The life of Abraham illustrates this (Gen 12:1 − 3). He also had to leave his home when God called him. It is as if God trusted him to leave behind everyone and everything that could hold him back from being the person he could be.

It is Lent. I am on a 40-day journey with Jesus. With my whole being I want to follow Him, to do that which I was called for. How do I leave those whom I love? How do I leave that which I am used to?

How do I make the shift so that the needed growth can take place, and my true self (the ‘Abraham’ in me) can emerge?

EXERCISE
In your prayer time:
• Thank God for everyone in your life.
• Become aware of the relationships that must change, and ask God to guide you and to give you what you need to accomplish this.
• Maybe there are relationships that need to come to an end, or other links that must be gorged.
• Talk to God about this.