The Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

When I was in seminary, there was one particular professor who began each and every class with this collect. He never bothered to explain why this particular prayer was his chosen one. He never bothered to interpret the prayer for us or to tease out any hidden meanings in the prayer. 

He simply prayed it -- sometimes with a voice full of passion and verve, sometimes with the edginess of anger and irritation, sometimes with a tone that indicated more boredom and disbelief than excitement and faith. But day in and day out, week in and week out, he offered this prayer.

Then, at the end of the semester, he entered the lecture hall, looked around at us, and said, "Today it is your turn, pray the prayer." And without hesitation, we all recited the collect verbatim. After we had finished the prayer, the professor said, "Very good. At least you now know one prayer from the Prayer Book. Now live your lives like you mean the prayer."

Living our lives like we mean our prayers. That's the challenge of Lent, isn't it? We say the words in church, but living the words in life is a different story. 

The fact is, we can only live our lives like we mean our prayers if we are fully aware that we are being "furthered" in our faith with God's continual help. We're not on our own. The life of faith isn't about showing God what we can do, but rather, the life of faith is about watching our lives to see what God is already doing. 

Two days into Lent and our way is not clear as yet. What wilderness will we traverse? What difficulties will we encounter? What challenges lie ahead? We don't know.

What we do know is this: God is directing us. God is "furthering" us -- and one day, by God's mercy and grace we will obtain the awareness that we have been given the life that is everlasting.

What if our lives gave witness to the fact that we mean the words of our prayers??? 

My guess is that if we managed to do that only once in a while, God's Name would be glorified. 

Maybe Lent is the time for us all to begin to live our lives as if we believe our prayers.