The Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God….
-Romans 14:17-18a


Being a second year seminary student, I find solace in the quiet corners of book stores or coffee shops-biding my time to reading and studying. No matter how quiet the corner, however, I still find myself reaching for little light green pieces of soft foam that have become my friends over these years- my earplugs. Although at first I found it silly to be sitting there, ears plugged looking like an introverted alien in the midst of conversation and living community, I soon found them to be comforting, enabling me to focus on what was important in my studies. I became engaged with the writers and their teachings, and found myself invited into scripture for reflection and consideration-free from the audible distractions of my outside environment-what a great invention.

The preparation seasons in the church are my favorite because they say to me, “stop, consider, and focus.” Lent, which can be seen as a season for denial, instead seems to me as a season of invitation. In his passage to the Romans, Paul is very clear about what we should fix our focus on – the Kingdom of God.
Paul invites us on the journey of focusing our energy and our lives to Christ’s message of the Kingdom. This journey is marked with the mile markers of righteousness and justice, peace and mercy, and the joy that comes through the empowerment and blessing of the Holy Spirit which we have been given to become such Kingdom travelers. To focus on these things, to add them into our lives- so they become our life, to move away from the mundane in order to engage and travel with the eternal, is what I believe Paul is asking of us here.
It is what I believe Lent should be about.

During this season of preparation we are invited to journey with Christ to Jerusalem and then Golgotha. Let us travel with Him, focusing on these Kingdom attributes along the way.

Consider some ear plugs, you might need them.