03.02.2026 | Monday in Lent

RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS
 
The rain has come and gone on this first Monday morning in March. I’ve always loved the old Carpenters song: “Hanging around, nothing much to do but frown. Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.” I love the song, the incredible voice of Karen Carpenter, and that beautiful arrangement. But truth be told, I love a good rainy day. And now that I’m an old, retired guy, Mondays are simply another day of the week. Sorry, Garfield.
 
The rains came renewing the earth. The soil is soaking up the heavenly moisture on this almost Spring day. It is cold and wet, but it is a different kind of cold and wet in March. There is a shift in the air, a hint of something waking up. The garden feels it too. As the Psalmist says, “When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.” The Spirit of the Creator is real and alive in this season. I can feel the change.
 
I need that change. I need the weather to break open into Spring. I need the sanctuary of the Garden, a place to escape the noise and anger and war raging in the world. Not to hide, but to breathe. A bit of white space for the soul. A quiet corner where my spirit can rest and gather strength again. As another Psalm reminds us, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Renewal outside and renewal inside, working together.
 
And maybe that is the gift of a rainy March Monday. The reminder that even in the cold and the gray, something new is already stirring. “His mercies are new every morning.” New mercies for the earth. New mercies for us. New mercies for the places in us that feel tired or worn thin.
 
“When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.” Send Your Spirit to us. Renew us. Renew me. Renew in me a spirit rooted in faith, restored in hope, and overflowing with love for others and for myself. Renew the face of the earth. We pray.
 
May this be a day of quiet mercies and small renewals, enough to carry us forward with hope.
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