Refuge

Friday after Ash Wednesday

In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.
Psalm 31:7

I step out the door and the wind whips the cold air about me with a vengeance. Its bitterness is a surprise. The balmy weather of the last few days and the bright sunshine had promised spring warmth. And yet I know that contradiction is the byword of this season.

I pull my coat closer and hurry forward until I can step around the corner of a building and shelter from the blast. And as I linger there, finally able to feel the sun, I think of other times I have found refuge from a storm, and how life-giving it is to be protected.

Lent too is a season of contradictions. The wilderness offers both danger and sanctuary. In my own journey of self-examination, I want to engage those things that need change in my life—and I want to step away from the temptation that leads to shame. What my past encounters with this territory have taught me, and what I pull close about me now, is the knowledge the Holy One offers places of refuge along the way.

I step back out into the incongruity and inconsistency of the not-yet spring and make my way toward home.