A Surprising Lenten Journey

I have embarked on a journey that I did not intend to be a spiritual wandering, Lenten style, but that is what is happening. I am currently taking a week's study leave at Duke Divinity School, from whence I graduated exactly thirty years ago. As one might expect, much has changed since then. The part of the divinity school that was known as "new divinity" back then is now known as the Langford Building, after the former dean, provost and theology professor. The name had to be changed because there is now a new addition to the school which is magnificent, and which rendered the former new divinity, old. So, I have had to learn my way around, get used to the fact that there is no longer a parking lot behind the school, and let it sink in that the chapel at the divinity school is a real chapel now, not a study hall in the library that was used as a chapel for many years, including the time that I was here.
So, those and many other aspects of the place have changed since I was a student here. There is just one professor left from my time, and he will retire this year. The faculty is different, the student body is a generation removed from mine and the whole place has wireless internet access! What has surprised me most is the sense that I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses here. Sitting in chapel during worship, I was transported to my days as a student, singing in the chapel choir and preaching my senior sermon. Suddenly, all of the people from that time can flooding into my memory. I thought of classmates whom I have not thought about in years, young, laughing, dreaming. I feel them as a palpable presence with me, and I see myself, as a young, idealistic student who had no idea what lay head of him. I have sat in on classes, only to discover that their content was not really new to me. I wanted to take charge and talk about what this stuff really means "out there" among God's people. But I sat quietly and listened, for they will make their own discoveries, just as I did. I think of my classmates who have died, and they will always be young and vibrant and still here, all around, in my mind's eye..
I did not expect this journey to have this almost supernatural glint to it; I just came down for study leave. But I am being transformed by the place, the people and the memories of all who have gone before this current crop of students. I don't belong here anymore, and yet, I will never completely separate myself from the place. There will always be a little part of this unspeakably beautiful place in my heart. It helped to form me, and I am still influenced by the people and the place. So, during this season of Lent, as spring unfurls its beauty and the mystical sense of the presence of God everywhere manifests itself, I hope you too have an unexpected and uncharted journey into the very heart of yourself, your life and your connection to God.