Welcome to the Family!

MANNA MOMENT

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Lent arrives not with cymbals but with a hush. As James Howell often suggests, it is the season when the church dares to tell the truth—about dust, about desire, about the slow work of grace in a restless world. We walk with Jesus toward Jerusalem, and in that long walk we discover how cluttered our souls have become.

Lent is less about giving up chocolate and more about surrendering illusions—the illusion that we are self-made, self-sufficient, or self-saving. Like a line from T.S. Eliot, it is “the still point in the turning world,” where
we learn to be still long enough for God to speak.

And yet Lent is not bleak; it is bracing. It clears space. It teaches us to notice small mercies: bread in our hands,
breath in our lungs, forgiveness we did not earn. Even a simple practice—placing slips of thanksgiving into jars
of gratitude—becomes a quiet rebellion against despair. In a season marked by repentance, we also rehearse
gratitude, because every honest confession opens into grace, and every emptying makes room for
resurrection.

As your pastor, I look forward to our Lenten journey together.

 

In gratitude and expectation to see where and how the Lord is moving!

Dr. T. David Phillips

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