“LOOK WELL TO THE GROWING EDGE. All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves, fresh blossoms, green fruit. Such is the growing edge! It is the extra breath from the exhausted lung, the one more thing to try when all else has failed, the upward reach of life when weariness closes in upon all endeavor. This is the basis of hope in moments of despair, the incentive to carry on when times are out of joint and men have lost their reason, the source of confidence when worlds crash and dreams whiten into ash. The birth of the child–life’s most dramatic answer to death–this is the growing edge incarnate. Look well to the growing edge!”
–Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart
Last week I was helping my parents in Nashville tear down a broken fence when we found an old wooden planter. As I began to take apart the planter, I discovered a thick root system that grew through the wood into the earth below. Often when potted plants lack adequate nutrients, their roots will find ways outside their container in order to survive and continue flourishing. The planter was this particular plant’s growing edge: the boundary between stagnation and further maturity.
For forty days during Lent, we commit ourselves to spiritual practices of self examination. We attend an Ash Wednesday service to remind us of our mortality; we may commit to extended times of prayer or meditation; some take up extra acts of Christian service; and many choose to fast in one way or another all in preparation for the Easter victory.
Our Lenten practices revolve around denying our indulgences and dying to ourselves. Not for the sake of that death but for the sake of the new life that comes out of it. They help us find our growing edge so that we, individually and communally, will break past it, albeit through struggle, to grow and thrive. In this way we, year after year, can experience death and rebirth with the rest of creation as we wait for the great resurrection at Christ’s return.
What is your growing edge (or edges) to break past? What is Christ City’s? How can we reorient our Lenten practices to create a resurrection mindset?
-Ben Higdon