An important consideration during Lent is simply just how single-minded we are in devotion to God and how that plays out in our lives.
All too often I’m afraid we can be all over the place. We have this and that going, and something else over there on the side, not to mention what might be on the back burner. And that can be true even concerning good, religious things. We can be occupied with things as kind of an end to themselves, forgetting that everything actually has one end. And that’s where single mindedness comes in. To be single minded is to be simple in the sense that life is boiled down essentially to one thing: following the Lord.
The disciples were certainly scattered in their thoughts and were kept physically on track only because our Lord was not scattered in his. Jesus had set his face like a flint toward Jerusalem. He knew he was going there to suffer and die, yes on a cross, and on the third day to be raised to life. Many details not only had to be taken care of along the way, but were front and center as they would come up. Jesus dealt with them with a singular focus in the love of God and on the way of and to the cross.
Surely in that, the disciples themselves were being trained. To learn to see life the same way, getting rid of what is not only hurtful, but not essential. Learning to take up their own cross and follow. Becoming single-minded. Something we can meditate on and pray about during this Lenten season.
Jesus community 