I believe that I shall see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. 
Psalm 27:13

I’ve just pulled the kazillionth chocolate chip cookie out of the oven. These are Lillian’s project, made for the How Sweet It Is Fundraiser, which happened last night. She worked on them start to almost-finish. But at 45 minutes past her bedtime, I figured I might ought to take care of the final round.

That’s a tiny fraction of the work that went into making the evening a success, which it was because of all of the talent and love involved. I’ll be honest with you though. When the topic of the fundraiser came up, my first reaction was “Ah, hell.” — not a very church-appropriate reaction, I know.

I get tired, however, of thinking about the business of the church (our church) when what I really want to concentrate on its spirit. But that’s not the way it works — and there’s no better time than Lent to recognize it. We encounter God and one another in the business of the church as much as we do in a worship service. Or at least we do if we are paying attention.

Lent calls us to pay such attention. It’s a time of stripping away clutter. And what’s left after we get rid of all that clutter is our relationship with one another and with God.

It really hit me on Saturday during the building clean-up, when so many people turned out to pitch in (and if you didn’t, don’t worry — there will be plenty more chances on one project or another). I saw many things that day: effort and problem solving, negotiation and skill, and cleaning product after cleaning product. The task of that day was definitely clearing away clutter. And without a doubt, the best part of it was how the work taught us all, if we were paying attention, something about being in relationship, both with one another and with God.

That’s what church is supposed to do. It transforms all of the stuff of our daily lives into lessons on living in grace. Last night served as yet another opportunity for that. At 23 days into Lent, I cannot claim to have been constantly grateful for every single one of those moments of learning about grace. Yet I know that they add up to something that both transcends and fully engages me in life in this world. In those moments, I can truly see, as Psalm 27 says “the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

-Jennifer Sanders