We have turned the page from Epiphany to Lent. As we move forward in the church calendar, let’s take a moment to think about who we are becoming in the world. It is so natural to wonder, “What should I do?” that we can forget to ask, “Who am I becoming?” As Dallas Willard says above, who we become is the only thing that we will take with us into eternity. And though it may now be Lent, we’re still experiencing winter. Is it possible to grow in ‘becoming’ during life’s dormant seasons? Perhaps Nicolas Herman can help us…

Nicolas was born in the year 1614 in Lorraine, France. One winter day, when he was eighteen, he was looking at a barren tree in a field, bereft of all signs of life. In that moment, the eyes of his heart were suddenly enlightened; he knew that the tree would bloom and burst forth with new life in the soon-coming spring, and as surely as God would do that in the tree, God would do the same in Nicolas’ own heart. He says, “In the winter I saw a tree stripped of its leaves and I knew that within a little time the leaves would be renewed, and that afterwards the flowers and the fruit would appear. From this I received a high view of the power and providence of God…” This revelation changed the course of his life. Some of us know Nicolas by the name he took as a discalced* Carmelite – Brother Lawrence, the author of The Practice of the Presence of God.

Brother Lawrence can help us understand how winter seasons con- tribute to who we are becoming in a couple of ways. The first is to recog- nize, as did he, that the dormancy of winter seasons in our lives is not the end of the story. God is faithfully at work under cover of snow and ice, soon to break through with new life: we can trust God to birth new life in us, even if we can’t see or feel it now. The second way is in how he never gave up practicing God’s presence, and even though it took him years to grow into a person who was aware of God’s continual presence in every- thing he did, he did not give up.
He just kept turning to God, and in doing so, he became a beautiful soul whose writings have helped others practice God’s presence ever since. Let’s grow in becoming who God calls us to be, together.

*denoting or belonging to one of several strict orders of Catholic friars or nuns who go barefoot or wear only sandals