text: Lent 2020: Day 13 - Napa Methodist Church
  Lent 2020: Day 13
  Juliane Poirier 03/09/2020 Lent 2020
  Monday, March 9 "Take Up" – Mark 8: 31-38
  How are we to take up the causes of Jesus – justice, righteousness and mercy in our day?
  The tires left by the side of the road weathered for at least a year, filled up with leaves and water, and began to disappear into the roadside weeds.
  I cursed the hapless person who dropped them off. I wondered if they couldn't afford the cost to haul six tires to the dump. I wished the county workers would stop and collect them before they polluted the seasonal stream downhill.
  One day it occurred to me that this task was mine: those tires were going to weigh on my mind and bother me every time I passed that way. No one else would be hauling them up from the waterway below and properly disposing of them.
  I wore my gardening boots and gloves to collect the tires. I stepped gingerly down the steep, slippery embankment to pull them up to the verge of the road, rolled them along to the truck, and heaved them into the bed. The trip to the recycling center will cost me an hour of driving and five dollars per tire to drop them off.
  Is there a task you might be avoiding, that might rightly be the cross you are supposed to pick up? I pray that it doesn't take you as long as it took me to deal with those roadside tires.
  Prayer: God, forgive me for my stubborn reluctance to do what needs to be done. Help me to hear you more clearly and respond quickly to the nudging of the Spirit. Amen.