Often the Christian season of Lent is described as a spiritual journey. The starting point for our journey is Ash Wednesday and the destination is the cross and the empty tomb. I invite you to join with me and our sisters and brothers in faith as we take our annual Lenten journey.
Along the way, we will share the experiences again of God's love expressed so completely in the life and witness of the Christ. We will hear first-hand the stories of the acts of God's love poured out for all people. We will experience again the redeeming love that reminds us that we, and all who we journey with in life, are seen by God as beautiful, precious, and worthy of love. We will learn again (or maybe for the first time for some) that God in Jesus Christ wants a loving relationship with us, which is only possible when we are in relationship with Jesus, our neighborhoods, and the strangers we meet along the way.
Along our journey as disciples, or followers of Jesus, we look within to examine our motivations and intentions, our thoughts and actions pursuing union with Christ day by day as the journey unfolds. We look around us to find Jesus in our community and answer the invitations to discover Christ in the wounded world. On our journey, we will be asked to seek restoration of the brokenness within ourselves and the lives of others. We will be the ones called upon to share love with the outcast, the broken, the victims of abuse and injustice, and those in pain. On nearly every step of our journey, we are given opportunities to be a witness for peace and vessels of hope.
Join me on this Lenten journey inward for reflection and growth, and outward as instruments of God's love where it is most needed.
Grace and Peace,
Hee-Soo Jung, Ph.D.
Bishop
Author
Hee-Soo Jung
Bishop Hee-Soo Jung has served as resident bishop of the Wisconsin Annual Conference since September of 2012. Prior to leading the Wisconsin Conference UMC, Bishop Jung served eight years as bishop of the Northern Illinois Conference (Chicago area).