Must be More : The Season of Darkness

Yesterday we watched as the annual passing of the sacrifice occurred.  


Hundreds of people gathered in the street in front of EBS, many banging drums, most dancing wildly, many dressed in bright colors and masks, many reeking of clairen, many carrying huge baskets of food on their heads, and several men in the middle carrying a life-sized doll of a white man who looked a lot like Santa Clause.


He had money pinned all over his jacket and pants...some small and some Haiti-Huge....we even saw some 100 dollar bills, coming from "Lot Bo", everyone said (literally "the other side", meaning "The United States").  


The grim Santa and his merry adorers were heading down the road to his "death", a "sacrifice" that takes place annually.  He, all of his money and all of his baskets of food (in a community of starving people) were burned last night at midnight.


It is said that those who gave him money will be given good luck this year...the amount of luck based on the amount of the bill.  He is a very professional demon, and doesn't work for free.  His blessings come at a price, a price, as it seemed yesterday, many were happy to pay.


This has been happening now for decades.  


No one really wanted to talk much about the whys and whats...it was a day to be carefree and carnal, not to consider.  The church speakers from the two Saccanville churches blared in competition with the drums and chanting throughout the afternoon, youth and little ones hoarded inside so as to not be affected by what one emaciated and adorable 4 year-old told me was "the stuff of Satan."


I don't know.  We've lived here a long time now, and Voodoo is still something very deeply rooted that leaves us with more questions than answers.


This is what I know.  There is no place God is not.  


Today we remember that we are but dust, and to dust we will return.  This was not hard for me to consider for myself.  Whispering the reminder over my sleeping, soft-cheeked gift from God was choking.  


Dust.  But dust worth dying for.  There is no place God is not.


We are now in a season to consider our sin.  To consider ourselves without all the puffing and primping and positive thinking.  


It's dark.  But there is no place God is not.


We are approaching a day of celebration, but it is just as importantly preceded by days of blackest night.  He died.  Was dead.  I killed him.  Laid dead in a dark cave.  But there is no place God is not.


Jesus wasn't invited to the parade yesterday, nor was anyone interested in even the thought of Him.  


But He was there.  There is no place that God is not.


I have awoken to mornings of the deepest pain, suffered in dark lonely corners, hidden in silent despair of the heart...I have chosen my way, I have forgotten to invite Him (or chosen not to) and I have chosen myself over my God.  


But there is no place God is not.


Praise the Lord, this Lent, this season of darkness.  He is still there.  I praise Him.




Giving up food has always turned into a diet or weight loss competition in my mind...it's always been about my own strength.  So we'll keep our rice and beans this year (though I'm giving up ice cream!...wait a minute...)


We talked as a couple and wanted to give Him an extra space of time each day to invest in His Word.  We already don't have tv, don't have movie theaters, don't have shopping malls, don't have fast-food etc.  But at least 5 evenings a week, once we finally get the girls down and can't think about work any more, we pop in a release and enjoy being transported for an hour or so to some other world where there is no laundry, no papers to grade, and no one is starving and burning food for Satan.


Probably 7-10 hours a week. So for the next 46 days (40 days, not counting Sundays), we won't be watching movies at our house, and in that space we have intentionally created, we will be filling it with His Word and talking over coffee with Him.


As much as we enjoy temporarily forgetting the heartbreaks of life, pending decisions and stresses of ministry and work and home with movies, I am genuinely excited about a chance for God to actually SPEAK to those worries and burdens...something an inanimate DVD is unable to do.


I'm also working through a Bible reading/Lent activity plan with Lily...you can check it out here!  This went really well today and I am excited about this opportunity to hide His Word in our hearts together and to begin focusing more deliberately on what He did for us. 




Whatever you decide to do, or not do, this Lent, help me remember that it's not about what I have done, can do, want to do, or try to do, not about my dusty self or my wretched ways.  It's His love that wants the space with ME, His love that calls me to repent, His love that called Him to the cross, and His love that gives me new life beside Him.


It's a dark season.  But there is no place that God is not.


Good Lent!