Movement - Lenten Reflection for March 19

Movement is beautiful. It can take my breath away, literally and figuratively. Movement can also be tragic when we don’t have control of it. When we have movement, we take it for granted. When we don’t have movement, we long for it. There are all kinds of movement. Movement that we choose to do. Movement that is taken away. Movement we are forced into. Movement we are called to do.

Recently I started running again, training for a half marathon coming in June. The focus on moving my body 5 days a week has invigorated me. This movement is intentional, an action that I choose to do.

I am also acutely aware of movement that has stopped whenever I visit Margaret, my mother. Margaret had two strokes 3 years ago and her mobility was greatly reduced. Walking with a walker now, her left foot does not work like it should and she drags it on the ground, struggling to move forward. Mom’s lack of movement was never what she intended. It was an action that she did not choose and never would.

Many people throughout history were forced to move. Whether that forced movement was slavery, fleeing a country as a refugee, or being deported after working in the United States for 20 years, forced movement not only impacts the individual but it also rips a part of our collective soul as a community. The notion of forced movement is so clear in our country today and it is making our country a hostile environment. As a white, middle-class male born in the United States, I am aware of the privilege of movement that I have. This privilege, however, does not stop me from longing, praying, and dreaming of a world where all people are given the choice of their movement, and all hear the invitation of God to come to the promised land.

There is more in this longing. This is a time that I believe that we are all being called to move as one body towards a world that we dream of. Most recently, I feel called to move with others in protest, advocacy, and service. In February I went to the Minnesota Capital to advocate for clean water and stop copper sulfide mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Once a month since November I have joined others in serving meals to people who are homeless in two communities in Southeast Minnesota. How are you being called to move with purpose?

As you finish this chapter on movement think about your life. How has movement shaped your life, the movement that you choose or the movement and lack of movement that you don’t choose? What are you being invited by God to do and move towards? What gives you hope when life’s struggles pull you to the ground?

Rev. Paul Ehling is the vicar of Christ Episcopal Church in Old Frontenac, Minnesota.