I have been using the Church of England’s Lent Reflections entitled ‘#Dust and Glory.’ I am receiving these as emails but it is possible to download the app instead.
The series started on Ash Wednesday by looking back to the very first book of the Bible and the very first failure. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit they had been told not to touch.
As a result they were cast out of the Garden of Eden and were condemned to suffering and death. Lent is a time when we can think about the failures in our own lives which separate us from God today.
The cross reminds us that in Jesus, our failure is overcome by God’s glory. God himself comes to make up the distance we put between Him and us.
The thought of failure can be upsetting or even devastating. It is something we have all experienced. But is it the end of the story?
A later reflection in the series reminds us that failure doesn’t have the final word. From Noah to Moses, to Jacob to David God’s grace means human failure doesn’t prevent us from being God’s people and doing God’s work.
Adam and Eve were two ‘failures’ but from them spring countless more stories of failure and hope; stories that are made possible through the lives and legacies of other imperfect, flawed people.
I am looking forward to finding out what else this series has to teach me about living with failure and finding hope. D. K.