Lent Photos 2013 - Day 18 - Leave

I have been wrestling with this all day. And I keep coming back to one of my favorite U2 albums, All That You Can't Leave Behind. Even though there's not a song on the album with that title, there's a lot on the album that speaks of being in a place of uncertainty. Beautiful Day speaks to the contrasts between the everyday and what is going on around us. Grace reminds us of the beautiful gift that is grace, but there's also an edge of the challenge of finding and accepting it. Peace on Earth reminds us of the already but not yet of the Prince of Peace. And Stuck in a Moment is a song I have gone back to time and time again as I am reminded of how often I return to old patterns and old ways instead of accepting and living in the new life that is mine. There is so much that we struggle to leave behind - old experiences, past hurts, wounds that have not healed, familial experiences that still shape us today. Yet, we are reminded through the whole of Lent and into Easter that the old has gone and the new has come. Leave behind and walk in newness of life.