What is important

Midweek services are, for me, an opportunity to experiment in worship. As I was putting together services for Lent, trying to ensure that the folk who come to the midweek services will experience a real sense of going on a journey, with Jesus, from the wilderness to the cross (another sort of wilderness),  a journey that cannot be rushed or even neatly packaged, a journey that has to be lived, I was reminded of these words of Henri Nouwen's, about what, in the end, is important:

I found this out myself this afternoon when I went apple picking with Janice, Carol, Adam, Rose and their assistants. MY attitude was to get the apples picked, put them in bags and go home. But I soon learned all of that was much less important than to help Rose pick one or two apples, to walk with Janice looking for apples that hang low enough so that she herself can reach them, to compliment Carol on her ability to find good apples, and just to sit beside Adam in his wheelchair under an apple tree and give him a sense of belonging to a group... Efficiency is not the most important word - care is.

(Road to Daybreak p28)

May there be space in our Lenten journey to discover more care than efficiency and to experience and value the journey as well as the destination.