Reflection for Week 4 of Lent

By (CHA) Catholic Health Association

Lenten Reflection for Week 4: Starting March 6, 2016: Flowing Water

“I saw water flowing.” Ezekiel 47:1

The prophet Ezekiel experiences a vision of life-giving water flowing from the temple. With God leading, Ezekiel wades into the flowing water, and the water gets deep enough to swim in yet cannot be passed through. From the bank of the river he sees how the water from God makes all life flourish.

In Ezekiel’s vision flowing water becomes a metaphor for life. It is a living paradox of growth and change, ever constant and ever new. The rhythm of flowing water captures my imagination and distracts me from my smaller problems and anxieties. I am drawn into the larger flow of life.

The vision of flowing water reveals a process that leads to a greater reality. The water flows from God and leads to God. First we “see,” then we “engage in the paradox,” and that leads us to God.

A psychologist asks his clients, “Where is the life in your life?” In doing so he employs Ezekiel’s metaphor of flowing water. The first step is “seeing,” which is the noticing that opens one to awareness. In the second step new questions emerge: “How are you engaged with life? Where is goodness and grace happening?”  And finally, “How are you interacting with the goodness and grace?  Is this leading you to God?”

Looking for the deeper flow of my life takes courage. It takes me beyond the “What do you do for a living?” question. I am invited to look deeper and to wade more deeply into life by asking:

     Who am I being and becoming?

     Where is my life going?

I ask myself these captivating questions, and I am better able to see the flow of my life, what is flowing in my life, and where my life is leading me.