Weighty Matters

Engaging in a spiritual discipline or practice for a season ought to bring with it some deeper awareness -- of self and of God. Perhaps that is being so for me this Lent, though I'm far from certain.
On the other hand, going to the doctor and standing on the well-calibrated scale absolutely brings about some certainty and awareness. In this case, awareness that I have been eating too much and exercising too little.
Oh, to be sure, I was dimly aware of this but it is easy to lie to one's self about such things even when you employ a house-hold scale as a truth-telling device. They are far too easy to recalibrate or to pretend about.
Why this reflection today, other than the obvious doctor's appointment first thing this morning?
Today's invitation is to read Matthew 3, which includes the story of Jesus' baptism, and to recall with thanksgiving our own baptism as a moment of cleansing, forgiveness and renewal.
Like a scale, water seeks its level. In baptism, we find a level place with God, and though our lives are so often out of balance, we can return to that still place of rest and balance. Remembering that we have been there and can return empowers us to live again out of that place.
If, as we've been suggesting throughout this season, we have an embodied faith, perhaps living again out of the place is also a step toward re-balancing that which is out of balance with bodies -- whether it's diet, exercise, addiction or disease that has disturbed the equilibrium.
As with so much, it is a matter of practice, of decision, of living moment by moment, of letting go and dying to old habits and paths of destruction, and rising up to something new. It is, despite the chill in the air, springtime. Time for rising and renewing.