The Word

“In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”

-Proverbs 16:9-

Seasons and Seasons

Lent is a season in which many strive for reflection, to make new experiences and achieve rest. It’s also a time in which we see God’s creations of nature change and show their seasonal differences. As nature’s seasons change, so do the seasons of the human life. We are deeply connected to the Creation around us. Different in the seasonal human change, unlike nature, especially Lent when all things appear new again, our bodies age. Hopefully, our minds are renewed each season to the point of maturity revealing the beauty of Godly wisdom.

Focusing on nature’s seasonal changes – identify your current season of human life. What elements of the Lent’s seasonal beauty, reflection, and shedding of old ways are on display in your current season of life? In this season of Lent, what your life’s aspiration? Are you inspired for the next season? Who are you inspiring in their season?  What’s your plan and how in each season are you ordering your steps? What does this look like in terms of our communal relationship with the earth?

Chronos and Kairos

Proverbs 16:9 reminds us that we could work and try to do everything on our time (Chronos), but the Lord provides in the Lord’s time (Kairos). Some events and opportunities that occur in winter, spring or fall may seem overwhelming and intimidating because of climate and mobility limitations. I suggest that Lent is a time where we can let go and allow God to guide our hearts to best fit into God’s plan of action. Allowing God to plan removes the obstacles of time, stress, failure and other limitations which transcend into opportunities for peace, restoration, and understanding.

Aspire to Inspire

Incorporating the meaning of the quote “Aspire to Inspire before you Expire” into whatever season of life in which we find ourselves, we can identify pain, the need for power, and hope for promises fulfilled.

There is recognizing the pain experienced in past seasons – the pain that has allowed you to become the person God created you to be. Then comes the pain of anticipated trauma and dilemmas that are in store and unknown. One must go through this pain to move to the next season.

The power of our testimonies changes who we are as servants. We are changed for the work of the risen Savior.

Then there’s the best part – the promise, the promise(s) fulfilled from a lifetime of holding on to God’s unchanging hand amid both chaos and celebrations.

When living out the true existentialism of this quote, we can see how only God can transform our pain into power and how God always delivers us promises within a Kairos moment.

All of this is what we could try to do before the time that we leave this season. However, this is not limited to only this season, but this journey is for a lifetime. Imagine what we could do as a powerful group of people when we serve the kingdom with the mindset to aspire to inspire before we expire.

Discussion Questions

1. What elements of the Lent’s seasonal beauty and newness are on display in your current season of life?
2. In this season of Lent, what your life’s aspiration? Are you inspired for the next season? Who are you inspiring in their season?
3. How has the Lenten fast from plastics newly inspired you? How might your next season look different because of this Lenten practice?

 

Rev. Louis Tillman is the Pastor of St. Philip’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Baltimore. This congregation is the oldest African American Lutheran Church in North America. It was started as an African American church by a pastor who was recently freed out of slavery. St. Philip’s Evangelical Lutheran Church will be celebrating their 130th Anniversary on October 18, 2020.

 

 

God of Justice

As I mulled over how to respond to the topic of climate and racial justice, I knew that if I merely wrote out a response it would become a piece of academic prose with facts. But in this time of Lent, we already know the facts: we already know that our Earth is in trouble, that racism plays out in systems and structures that disembody black and brown lives and the body of Christ itself, that we as human beings can’t seem to get along, that there is evil embedded in every single system of our country and our world, and yet God intends for this world to be one committed to justice-seeking love rooted in the promise of the resurrection. 

Instead of writing out a response in succinct, beautiful paragraphs, I have decided to write a poem in order to lament, fast, and give alms this Lent.

 

The Word

1 Corinthians: 12 – 27

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many members, yet one body. ²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; ²⁴ whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, ²⁵ that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

 

A slam poem for racial and environmental justice

In these 40 days of Lent

we take up the disciplines of alms giving, prayer, and fasting.

You see, as a kid

These seem so easy and maybe because I was only focused on 

Myself

I was focused on my own prayers, my own fasting, my own giving to “the poor”

Now, having broken through childhood innocence, I, first of all, realize the privilege of childhood innocence

As I talk with youth today, I hear palatable devastation and anger in the same breath.

You see, our young people are growing up in a time where their lives and the ecosystems of this world are not guaranteed.

And it’s not like there is a “Planet B”

Young people grow up in a time where they do not suffer the effects of climate change, 

they will operate within frameworks of fear as they muster up 

enough courage to go to school every day 

and pray there is not another school shooting, or a shooting at a place of worship, or a shooting late at night with a ricocheted bullet that claims the life of a child. 

Black and brown youth are forced to grow up in un-maintained and uncared for “affordable housing.” 

Oh, and to remind them who they are in the US of A, 

structures of whiteness put toxic and nuclear waste sites, landfills, plastic, 

oil refineries, lead, and gas-guzzling semis in their communities.

In other words, we disregard black and brown people like we discard our trash, our dispensables, our by-products of greed and self-centeredness.

 

In this increasing movement for environmental justice, as people of faith, 

let us take seriously the disciplines of Lent 

as a beloved community beyond our tendency to do so as individuals.

It is this collective alms giving, prayer, and fasting 

that we might discern 

God’s Spirit and

guidance.  

As a church deeply committed to anti-racism work and creation care,

May Lent serve as a time for us to follow the Spirit’s dance 

in weaving these stories together. 

You see, 

It’s not climate justice 

OR

Racial justice.

Rather, it’s 

racial, climate, gender, queer, economic, global justices.

 

As an “older youth,” in this season of Lent,

We repent.

I repent of my complicitness and desire for plastic and fossil fuels.

We repent that we have not lived up to our covenant in Genesis to maintain and preserve creation.

I repent that I have not understood environmental justice as a matter of racial justice 

We repent that we have not listened to our youth 

And to indigenous ways of knowledge with regards to living in balance with creation.

We repent we have degraded our earth just as we have degraded our neighbors through systemic injustice and oppression.

I repent that I have only fixated on sources of knowledge in the environmental justice movement who are white.

We repent that structures of power maintain white supremacy in order to keep us from witnessing the oppression of black and brown lives.

I repent that I have only listened to Greta Thunberg. 

 

As an “older youth,” in this season of Lent,

I also take-up the practices of prayerfully listening and expanding my creation of justice worldview.

We will listen and pass the mic to young black and brown environmental and racial justice activists.

We will listen to Jamie Margolin, Mari Copeny, Xiye Bastida, Isra Hirsi, Kevin J. Patel, Elsa Mengistu, Nadia Nazar, and other youth activists of color.

We will seek racial justice as a matter of climate justice and climate justice as a matter of racial justice.

We will listen and cultivate authentic relationships of solidarity.

 

Discussion Questions

1. How does your faith compel you to work towards racial and climate justice?
2. What have /  will you let go of and take-up in this season of Lent with regards to racial and climate justice?
3. How do you understand the relationship between racial and climate justice? What is happening in your local community or congregation that addresses these?
4. Who are leaders of color you listen to in the environmental movement? Theologians? How are you taking time to deepen this practice of listening during Lent?

 

Wylie Cook (they, them, their’s) is currently a seminarian attending Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA. Wylie has advocacy experience in various areas but specifically, the gender and racial nuances of policy. Wylie interned at the ELCA Advocacy office in Washington, D.C. and has most recently come from working with the Lutheran World Federation’s delegation to the United Nations Climate Change negotiations in Poland. While studying to become a Lutheran pastor, Wylie engages in advocacy and activism that is rooted in and informed by Lutheran liturgy, theology, ethics, and tradition. Wylie also serves on the policy council for the Lutheran Office for Public Policy- California. In their free time, Wylie loves to travel and visit family and friends around the nation, sing in choir, and cuddle with their Miniature Pinscher, Cosmo. 

Expanding Lament

A great practice for expanding language is to read the definition of a word that you already understand.

I’ve heard the word lament plenty of times—I was an English major who loved Gothic novels—but I had never actually taken the time to really define it.

The definition didn’t hold any surprises, but as I researched definitions, I also researched Bible verses. And as I read Bible verses, I thought about lament in the context of my own life. And as I thought about lament in my own life, I realized that I have several memories that fit this vision before the word was even in my vocabulary.

Lament was the tears at 6 years old watching my grandfather baptize my sister in the hospital because we knew she wouldn’t live long enough to see anything outside of that building.

Lament was the fear when, later that year, I saw that same grandfather with yellow skin and no hair. Lament was understanding that those things were not good.

Lament was the work put into making a colorful picture with the words “Greif is a token of love” and presenting it, spelling mistake and all, to my fifth-grade classmate at his father’s wake.

Our lives are made up of moments of lament even before we grasp what grief is. No one is exempt. Perhaps we are lucky enough to have less of these moments than others; perhaps we are not. Not even Jesus Christ was immune its power:

The Word

They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” ³³ He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. ³⁴ And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” ³⁵ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. ³⁶ He said, “Abba,^[a] Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.”

21^st Century Lamentations

Lament is an old word, dating back to the 16^th century, and clearly one that is not often part of our written vocabulary anymore. It involves a demonstration of grief, an intensity of sorrow that cannot be stored inside of the body. Yet, even as the word itself slowly recedes from our attention, we still perform it.

Today I feel a different grief, that of an unformed and uncertain tomorrow, and I lament this dying future with others of my generation and beyond.

 

We lament with our reusable bags and bulk bins.

We lament with metal straws and bamboo forks.

We lament with washed out salsa jars now serving as containers.

We lament with empty refillable water bottles through airport security.

We lament with our voices in the street instead of our voices in the classroom.

 

I read Jesus’ lamentations in Gethsemane often because this is when he seems the most human to me, right before he transitions to becoming the most divine by being nailed to a cross for our sins. It is the passage where I can begin to even try to understand his humanity and divinity in one body.

This season of Lent I have chosen my lamentation, my demonstration of grief, to be to give up single use plastic, but it is not restricted to this. We all have different lives and different sorrows, and whatever form your lamentation for the degradation of the environment takes, we join in support together as the Children of God, each crying out in our own Gethsemane.

Discussion Questions

1. How does lament tie into your sustainability practices this season? How do you make your action more intentional?
2. How have your experiences of lament affected you throughout your life? Are you currently mourning something?
3. How does Jesus’ pain in the scripture open you up to your own?
4. How might your #NoPlasticsforLent lament affect your relationship to creation during this season? Beyond?

 

 

Tessa Comnick is serving in Washington D.C. as the Hunger Advocacy Fellow with ELCA Advocacy. She comes from Cleveland, Ohio with a bachelor’s degree in English from Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio and a master’s degree in Global Environment, Politics, and Society from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The granddaughter of a Lutheran pastor, Comnick has attended an ELCA church since she was born and is immensely touched by the support of her home congregation, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Westlake, Ohio. She is grateful for this opportunity with the ELCA to explore her passions for food security and waste reduction, along with the opportunity to expand her knowledge in other areas such as environmental economics and climate induced migration. Comnick is a staunch believer that good things will come in the future, both in terms of altruism as a society and in Cleveland sports.

My Story

When I was growing up on a small 3 acre farm in Tacoma, Washington with my two parents and three siblings, I HATED going outside and doing yard work. It was the last thing I wanted to do.

I would rather have been inside the house watching movies on our VHS player. On top of the mandatory all-family yard work on the farm, we lived frugally getting everything second-hand, including my school outfits which did not fit my fashion standards. At all.

Skip to college where I studied pre-med and needed to declare a major, realizing the only realistic option was Environmental Studies, an open major. Taking classes in this program, I finally found something that fit my educational needs. Learning what the environment was ecologically, socially, and locally gave me a new lens to understand and see the world in a deeper way.

My Learning

I learned how my actions could affect my local community, and communities internationally who I had never even considered. I learned how my desire for brand new material goods affected what I now know and fear as Global Climate Change, and that it is occurring at a pace that exceeds what humans have ever experienced before. I learned how this global change is hurting the natural environment, the plants and animals that live in it, and people who are marginalized because of their socioeconomic status, race, location and more. I found my passion. And it’s a shared passion with anyone who wants to self-reflect on who they are and what they do and how they affect their neighbors, communities, and the world in ways that may not be so obvious. It’s a shared passion with anyone willing to be more intentional with their actions towards the environment.

After graduating with a degree in Environmental Studies, I volunteered in Palestine for a year with Young Adults in Global Mission (YAGM), an international service program through the ELCA. It was my first time over the Atlantic and my first time witnessing the joys and hardships of another culture for such a long period of time. I volunteered at the Environmental Education Center in the West Bank. It was the perfect accompaniment to my undergrad studies. Suddenly, I was observing one of the international communities I learned about – one that suffers the impact of my environmental actions at the hands of an unjust and oppressive system. Environmental Sustainability quickly shifted to Environmental Justice. I saw how product consumption in America driven by capitalism, materialism, and greed coupled with living under occupation can devastate countries like Palestine who are trying to keep up in a high-consumption world. Reflecting during my year I thought “I can do better than this”.

Word

2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10

20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

6 As we work together with him,[a] we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,

“At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”

See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! 3 We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, 7 truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Ashes to ashes

We are called to be ambassadors of Christ, stewards of the Earth here and now! Now is the acceptable time. We are asked to care for creation as well as our neighbors around us. We can practice being more mindful and intentional with our efforts to preserve our environment and lessen negative impacts on plants, animals, and marginalized communities that are merely trying to survive.

Ash Wednesday is near and it reminds us that like the earth that clings to our feet each day, we are dirt. We are ashes. We are dust. We are creation, we are earth itself.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and of a tradition in the Lutheran Church where we take time to self-reflect, repent, and remember what Jesus did for us before he laid down is life for us.

Ash Wednesday reminds us that we are called by Christ to prayer for, lament for, and care for the earth to which we all will return.

Reflection Questions

1. How can we hold ourselves and the people around us accountable in treating the environment with care, love, and respect? What does it mean to be Christ’s ambassador in this context?

2. What are your consumption habits? How often are you purchasing things with plastic? Where do you put your old electronics?

3. How do you mark Ash Wednesday? What do the words “ashes to ashes” mean to you?

Bio

Hannah Wright Osborn (She/Her/Hers) is a living Lutheran currently residing in the DC Metro Synod where faith and politics are ever present. Her studies in college helped her to understand the value of the farm she grew up on and the recycling of second-hand products. Her year in Palestine further fueled her passion for social justice work. She came back and was invited to lead a trip back to Palestine for other Young Adults of Color near and within the church and to give them space to lead in a white and marginalized society. She has returned back after a successful trip in January 2020 and continues social justice work in her local community through Luther Place Memorial Church.

The Season

I didn’t fully appreciate (or understand) liturgical seasons growing up. As a kid, Lent was a baffling time of year that somehow started with a fun pancake party on Shrove Tuesday and took a seriously somber turn PRETTY quickly, culminating in the highly scary Bible slamming during my church’s Good Friday Tenebrae service. Growing up in the deep South, a lot of my Christian friends from non-liturgical traditions didn’t observe these seasons or days. It wasn’t fair – they didn’t give up soda or chocolate or meat for 40 days.

Lent changed for me in middle school when my dad, probably half-serious, half-desperate, suggested that I give up being rude to my sister for Lent.

It didn’t make any sense to me.

What about chocolate?

I was just starting to worry about my waistline anyway, and Lent would be a great time to make a change.

The Word

Isaiah 58: 4 – 9

You fast only to fight.

Is this the kind of fast that I’ve chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves?

Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?

Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

But this is the fast that I choose:

To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,

To set the oppressed free and break every yoke.

To share your food with the hungry,

To provide the poor wanderer with shelter

When you see the naked, to clothe them,

And to not turn away from your own flesh and blood.

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear.

Then you will call and the Lord will answer;

You will cry for help and God will say:

Here am I.

The Fast

I heard a (very awesome young adult) pastor, Rev. Erin Coleman Branchaud preach on this text a few weeks ago and explain that this part of Isaiah is about the people of God asking to be recognized for their good fast. God helps them understand what REAL fasting that is pleasing to the Lord looks like.

It looks like fasting from the injustice we participate in every day – knowingly and unknowingly.

Fasting from leaving our neighbors without food and shelter.

Fasting from shame.

Fasting from building walls between us and our loved ones.

Fasting from destroying the earth.

Fasting from fighting with our little sisters.

THIS is part of what Lent is about for us. And maybe sometimes fasting from a specific item or food can be part of this fast. But, as Rev. Coleman Branchaud noted, Lent is not “a baptism of our self-improvement goals”.

Lent, a season during which we remember Jesus’s 40 days of walking in the wilderness, invites us to reflection, to lament, and to THIS fast – one of justice and peace. Lent welcomes our pain and sorrow and frustration and asks us to lay down the things that keep ourselves and our neighbor in chains. Lent invites us to be intentional, to notice our own habits, and to walk in the liberating steps of our Savior.

The Movement

So why plastics?

This year at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly the body gathered – including a huge number of young adult voting members – called on the ELCA to get serious about its commitment to care for creation.

The #NoplasticsforLent initiative, led by young adults across the church, calls us to prayer for creation, to lament the ways we have been complicit in the degradation of the earth, and to action to care for our neighbor in fasting from the things that are hurting our planet.

Our suggestion is that individuals, families, and communities fast for 40 days from single-use plastics.

We want this initiative to be accessible to all, and if this is not possible for you in your context or community, we invite you to sustainability practices that make sense for you.

The Details

We will publish a sign-up next week where individuals, families, and communities can share whatever it is that they’ve pledged to do to fast from degradation of creation this Lenten season!

Over the course of the next two weeks we will publish videos with how-to tips and easy switches to make, and we encourage you to share your ideas for fasting from plastics with each other on social media with the hashtag #NoplasticsforLent .

We will have weekly devotionals, like this one, published each Monday of Lent. These devotionals will be by young adult writers who are passionate about their spirituality and about care for creation.

We know that it will take more than giving up plastic cups at communion to heal the earth, but we hope that walking together as the Body of Christ in this initiative during this Lenten season will help us both individually and communally be better neighbors to plants, animals, the earth, and each other in our day-to-day lives. We also hope that it will move us toward more long term justice-seeking for the creation in our care.

We invite you to this Lenten practice of prayer, lament, and fasting as we walk for these 40 days with Christ.

The Promise

We invite you to this fast from the ways we harm our neighbor, creation.

And this is what Isaiah tells us:

That when we seek justice, love God, and serve others in this way

“light will break forth like the DAWN.“

As we pray and mourn for creation,

“Healing will quickly appear.”

Even when we feel overwhelmed by the challenges of environmental degradation,

“You will call and the Lord will answer;

You will cry for help and God will say:

Here am I.”

Reflection Questions:

1. How do you understand Lent? Has your understanding changed at all over time?
2. Have you ever participated in a Lenten practice? If so, which have been the most meaningful and why? If not, what other spiritual habits or practices have you engaged in?
3. Why is care for the earth important for you as a person of faith?
4. What sustainability practices or creation care practices might you commit to this Lent as an individual? With your family / friends? With your congregation / community? How will you hold one another accountable?

 

Savanna Sullivan (she/her/hers) serves as the Program Director for ELCA Young Adult Ministries at the ELCA Churchwide Office in Chicago, IL. She was a main stage speaker at the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston, TX and gives presentations around the country to ELCA and ecumenical groups about Young Adult culture and empowerment in the church. She is passionate about helping young people seek the Divine in themselves and pushing the church to equip, amplify, and respect the voices of young leaders. She loves banana pudding, the Clemson tigers, and memorizing poems.

Lost

Senior year in college, two weeks until the end of the first semester. You’re supposed to have everything figured out (so I thought). Thanksgiving break was quickly approaching, and I was dreading the moment I would be bombarded with questions from family members around the dinner table. We all know what I’m talking about…

“So, how’s school going?”

“Do you have a job lined up after graduation?”

“What are you going to do with your life?”

Like any other college student, I wasn’t looking forward to it. Although it looked like I had everything figured out, I was beyond lost and confused.

Leaning In

As I walked into the McKanna-Sandrock Retreat Center of Lutheranch, I was overwhelmed, nervous, excited, and anxious for what was to come in the next 48 hours at the first-ever ELCA Young Adult Discernment Retreat. I was determined that I was going to have the next five years of my life planned out detail by detail before I got back on a plane to Illinois.

Quiet walking trails at Lutheranch in Tallapoosa, GA where the Discernment Retreat was held.

Well, that didn’t happen, however I left with something even better. I left with the understanding that it’s not about knowing what the next five years entails, it’s knowing what my next most faithful step will be.

I realized the next step on my journey was about how to lean in and let go – how to lean into discomfort and the unknown and trust the Holy Spirit with this next step.

I take my coffee with a side of discernment (and also waffles).

Being in community with sixty lost, confused, eager and change-making young adults was comforting. Not only was everyone supportive, excited, and willing to listen, but everyone was willing to share their experiences and discern alongside me. This community listened to my wildest dreams and encouraged me to chase them, no matter how scary they were

New friends and old friends formed community at the first ELCA Young Adult Discernment Retreat

Letting Go

Luke 5: 1-11 Jesus Calls Simon and James and John

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ² he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”  ⁶ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” ¹¹ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

I left that discernment weekend with this gentle but important reminder: God’s got this. I don’t need to worry, but I do need to trust the Holy Spirit. Just like when Simon, James, and John were all called out into the water to cast their nets out after a long day of catching nothing, they trusted Jesus. They returned with boats so filled with fish that they began to sink. My next most faithful step was considering how I might work on that level of trust in God.

The discernment continues across the miles with these friends!

Leaving

Fast forward a little over a year from the first discernment retreat, a lot has changed in my life. I’ve graduated from college, moved to a new city, met new people, and started working for the ELCA Youth Gathering. It was a scary, exciting, fast, adventure—but that is what this thing called life is. Still to this day, I think about the amazing community that I was a part of and hope and pray that they are still discerning God’s call for them, whatever that may be and that they are trusting to follow that call, even if they are tired and worn out.

 

Reflection Questions:

1. Simon spent all night fishing and didn’t have any luck. Before Jesus came to their boat and said “let’s go”, they had given up. However, once they had Jesus’ help, they had boat loads of fish—literally. What is something in your life that you feel God is calling you to try again?
2. Jesus has a simple message for us, to be fishers of people. How can you use your gifts to spread the Good News of Jesus to others?
3. How do you discern God’s calling for you? Do you talk with others? Do you spent more time in prayer/reflection? Do you spend time in God’s beautiful creation?
4. What is your next most faithful step? It doesn’t have to be a flushed-out plan, but what is that next step that will lead you to where God is calling you?

 

 

Justin Wilson serves as Program Associate for Communications and Administration for the ELCA Youth Gathering in Chicago, IL. He graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree focused around Digital Marketing, Nonprofits and Social Entrepreneurship. Throughout college, Justin served four summers at Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center (Oregon, IL), where he found joy and excitement in youth ministry. He also enjoys spending time outside, hiking, eating ice-cream and listening to Vance Joy.