{"id":163,"date":"2020-04-01T13:16:36","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T13:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/2020\/04\/01\/some-lent\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:51:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:51:17","slug":"some-lent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/some-lent\/","title":{"rendered":"“Some Lent!”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cSome Lent!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s how a sign read outside a church near my brother\u2019s home on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Lent indeed. When we consider all of the deprivations of the recent weeks, it\u2019s hard to imagine a harsher Lenten discipline. We\u2019ve given up our plans for the last half of this semester and some are starting to become anxious about plans for the summer. We\u2019ve given up meeting and eating with one another, we\u2019ve given up on meeting for prayer and the classroom experience which we took for granted but now seem so precious. We\u2019ve given up jobs and paychecks. As I write this, a campus alert has gone out confirming the first case of COVID-19 in a member of our campus community. Before that news, some shared with sorrow that a beloved member of the Psychology faculty and former President\u2019s marshal, Dr. Stanley Hughes, had died in hospice. Sadly, none of his friends or colleagues were permitted to be with him in his final days among us.  We know, given the projections, that some of the Valpo family will be personally impacted by the death of loved ones this pandemic. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grieving for what is and what is to come is palpable. It can make one nostalgic for the polite deprivations of Lent\u2019s past: chocolate, alcohol, salty snacks. I\u2019d happily give up all three just to have the joyful experience of worship at the Chapel of the Resurrection among dear friends.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to know what to do. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, it used to be, we would have marked days like these with repentance, prayer and fasting.\u201d observed a friend of mine. He\u2019s a historian of the medieval period, so he thinks about such things. \u201cNow,\u201d he said, \u201cwe panic-buy toilet paper.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d I agreed, \u201cthat hardly seems like an improvement.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of us are resolved to keep our cool. We\u2019re going to continue to conduct our classes and do our work the best we can. Those on the front line of this thing are going to do our duty for the sake of our neighbors the best that they can. Some of us are resolved to find the blessings that are hidden, even in times like these. It might not be prayer and fasting, it might be more like taking a break from the news, reaching out intentionally to check on others instead of assuming that they\u2019re okay, marking out time with family for prayer and devotional reading.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been some Lent.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her book, <\/span>Happy are Those: ancient wisdom for modern life<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span><\/i> Heather Choate Davis reflects on the verse from the <\/span>first Psalm<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThey [the righteous] are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season.\u201d She writes,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

As we neared the end of the 20th century, we began to view seasons as something to make an end run around. If people wanted strawberries in December, well then, we\u2019d go where they grow strawberries in December and spray \u2018em and pack \u2018em and ice \u2018em and ship \u2018em and \u2013 voila!\u2026 That we\u2019ve traded in a natural lifecycle for a manufactured stream of tasteless fruit \u2013 shiny and deceptive and available on demand \u2013 is a consequence we have chosen to ignore.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

She continues. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

[In] The Psalms, we hear of a different kind of life. A life of seasons. Seasons of joy and good fruit, to be sure. But also seasons of loss, of sadness, of failure; of uncertainty and rest; of illness and health; of seeking, pondering, raging, resurrecting; an ever-present cycle of death and new life meted out in due course across the landscape of our very human days.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve become so conditioned to persistent productivity, she observes, that we\u2019ve lost touch with the fact it is not only unsustainable, but that our creative productivity depends on times of rest and retreat, on times when we don\u2019t produce much of anything at all.<\/strong> When the most we can muster is just being. It seems to me that we\u2019re collectively in such a time.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve had some Lent and it brought with it some suffering, some grieving, and some learning. This season is about to come to a close. Sunday will mark the start of Holy Week and regardless of whether we can be with one another physically, the Church will mark that week recalling the awful and awesome obedience of Christ. We\u2019ll do so, not as a means of reliving his passion but as a deliberate reminder that in his obedience to the Father\u2019s will, Jesus fully aligned himself with suffering humanity in a suffering creation. He did so and does so, for the sake of a love that knows no bounds, no limits, not even the limits of death.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be some Holy Week.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that, regardless of our circumstances, we\u2019ll have some Easter.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May the obedience of Christ and the hope his resurrection proclaims bring you some peace. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pr Jim<\/p>\n\n\n\n

April 1, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n

University Pastor James Wetzstein and Deaconess Kristin Lewis take turns writing weekly reflections.<\/em>\u00a0You can\u00a0contact Deaconess Kristin here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Pastor Jim here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSome Lent!\u201d That\u2019s how a sign read outside a church near my brother\u2019s home on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.  Some Lent indeed. When we consider all of the deprivations of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-a-wetzstein","category-csl-newsletter-devotionals"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"dev@eridesign.com","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/deveridesign-com\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2025\/08\/ValpoCampus7-Resized-300x192.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/a>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/a>"],"unlinked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/span>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 7 years ago","modified":"Updated 10 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on April 1, 2020","modified":"Updated on December 29, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on April 1, 2020 1:16 pm","modified":"Updated on December 29, 2025 7:51 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12016,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions\/12016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}