A couple of weeks ago this book showed up in my mail.
I flipped through it, but didn’t read closely til a few days later when I was looking out at the bare space and pile of stump chips where our beautiful maple tree used to be, reflecting on the losses in my life this past year. (and yes, that is snow coming down in the picture, making this all the more depressing!)
I picked up Broken Hallelujahs again, and found such relevance, especially for this Holy Week.
In each chapter Beth Slevcove writes about a loss, and accompanies it with a prayer practice.
In chapter 5 she writes about how many of us are living in Holy Saturday – that time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It’s a time of unfulfillment and waiting. Like the disciples, we may have experienced a death and are hoping for the resurrection – new life.
The practice at the end of the chapter is what captured me. Slevcove invites us to find ourselves in the days of Holy Week. Here’s what she writes:
Listen.
Where are you living in Good Friday? These are the places inside of you and in your circumstances where death and darkness reign. Hope is not present, and expectations are shattered. These are the places where life is not as you hoped it would be.
Where are you living in Holy Saturday? These are the places of waiting, where the results are unknown and you can’t force things to happen. Where you are powerless to influence how the story will play out…
Where are you living in Easter Sunday? These are the resurrection realities in and around you, where you feel loved and at home. Where are you experiencing beauty, joy, healing, wholeness, and consummation?
Stop and listen… Have a conversation with God and a friend, spouse, or small group about what you’ve noticed.
Death, waiting, resurrection. Wherever you are, I pray you can celebrate the new life that Jesus brings this Easter.
