Lent- the Yellow week

I got the idea from Britt-Arnhild to focus on a different color for each week of Lent. We've decided to do that at church as well, with folks bringing in things each week for the alter of a certain color that represent a place they have seen God's presence during the week. This week, as you can see, is yellow.

I'm going to take the lazy way out tonight and just copy here the meditation I did for church today.

I'm sure many of you have been here on a Wednesday night or at a meeting or some other gathering around here when Cindy has asked us to be still and aware of God's presence within and all around us. Almost always once she says those simple words, I breathe in, breathe out, and I totally sense the presence of God.......within and all around. But sometimes when she calls us into God's presence........I am thinking.........”did I remember to turn the crockpot on?”
Sometimes when I am riding the shuttle to work and making my to do list for the day with some Michael Franti playing on my iPod, someone waiting on the corner catches my eye and they are so earnest and so dear that it catches my breath and makes me want to cry.
Almost every time I trace the corridors of my labyrinth I find God waiting for me at the center. But not always. And sometimes at the end of a long day when I'm throwing yet another load into the laundry, turning a pants leg right side out, I am certain that I have been joined, that some hand touches me and tells me that this is noble work.
All of this to say that I see God's presence, whether I try to or not. And that trying doesn't always make it so.
C.S. Lewis said that there are steps we can take to avoid God's presence. He suggests, “Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully. But you’d be safer to stick to the papers. You’ll find the advertisements helpful; especially those with a sexy or a snobbish appeal.” (Christian Reflections, pp. 168-169).”
I hope that in the week ahead you sense God's presence within and all around you, sometimes because you sought it out, and sometimes taking you by complete surprise.