A Reflection for Lent, GBHEM Lenten series

April 14, 2025 | By Luther B. Felder II

“Stay alert and pray so that you won’t give into temptation. The spirit is eager, but the flesh is weak.

Matthew 26:41

Photo by: Mike DuBose, UM News

My father had been my pastor all of my life. Therefore, when I answered the call to the ordained ministry, it would seem to follow that he would show me the ropes. However, in my second year of seminary, my father died. I remember feeling so discouraged, literally devastated and terribly upset with God that the person who would show me the way to “do” ministry, the one I loved and admired, had left me. The loss was so overwhelming and debilitating, I had to leave seminary for a semester.

My mother saw my anguish and heard my hostile inquiries about God’s timing and suggested to me that my arms were “too short to box with God.” Have you ever had such times in your life when you had those “Why God Moments?”

A pastor friend stopped by to call on my mother and me, who had visited with my father shortly before his passing. He shared that they had been uncharacteristically quiet as he sat by my father’s bedside. He reported that my father finally broke the silence with his own testament. Seeking eye contact through bloodshot lenses in his eyes, he said forcefully, “Tell the boys, the anchor holds!”

I wondered what he meant by this until I remembered the role of an anchor on board a ship as well as a song we sang in church. It is the anchor that steadies a ship in troubling situations. In other words, my father was saying that his faith remained anchored in the Christ we have preached for more than 40 years! Tell them that my hope remains, even in the middle of this turbulent life situation. Tell them that though the journey, though this rough patch is hard, I still trust in God; and you must trust in God.  Tell them that:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

That’s the message that Jesus is conveying to his disciples in this passage of Scripture. There are turbulent times ahead, but don’t lose heart. Stay alert. Stay focused. Keep the faith, even in the most challenging times of your life.

Bishop Leontine T. C. Kelly preached a sermon once that I believe speaks to this situation. Her message to us would be: “Don’t let the devil steal your joy!” That’s my message to my students, especially when they have “a lot going on.” Keep the faith!