Celtic Lent Day 39

To say Your name before I sleep does not guarantee that in the morning I shall wake in that world which held my bed. Still it matters not, for every world in Yours as I am.
Calvin Miller

Death is like the past. We can't change either of them. We have to make friends with them both.
William Brodrick

I feel like Good Friday is a day which gives us permission to think about death and sadness, anyone who's seen the wonderful Pixar film Inside Out knows sadness is as important as joy. Sadness can help us to grow and change, put our lives in context and help us re-evaluate what's important.
On Good Friday we sit with that, although we know the Easter feast is just about tangible. When we're in the middle of grief or difficult times we don't know when there'll be an end to it. We hope the intensity will become less, which eventually it does.
This day, like Ash Wednesday, also gives us a chance to consider our own mortality. We're here just for a season and because of that need to consider carefully what and who we give our one life to. Good Friday is about love. Choose to give your life to love.

Scripture
I say to God, my rock,
   ‘Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
   because the enemy oppresses me?’ 
As with a deadly wound in my body,
   my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
   ‘Where is your God?’ 
Psalm 42.9-10

The 3rd

We have to be candles, burning between hope and despair,
faith and doubt, life and death,
all the opposites.

(William Brodrick)

This is part of today's reflection from The Northumbria Community. The reflections are cyclical so I'm pretty familiar with many of them and this is the section of today's which always stands out for me.
It emphasises for me that life is not dualistic; whilst it lists opposites I believe it means we are forever in motion on the spectrum between the opposites. We are never fully one thing or another. There's also the challenge to be a candle on this spectrum- to both draw people to us and to illuminate.

This is really helpful I think when experiencing advent in our mostly secular country. We're both trying to prayerfully and patiently wait and prepare for Christmas day, and yet we're also caught up in many of the celebrations around us - this doesn't mean we aren't getting spiritually prepared too.

Today I found joy in leading our monthly family service, I was thankful that I'm entering Advent much more at peace than in previous years and I felt helpless over not getting enough sleep.

Scripture:
But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ Psalm 31:14