Lenten Meditations from Our Parish Family
Beginning on Ash Wednesday, we invite you to journey through Lent with daily meditations written by St. John’s parishioners. These reflections offer honest, thoughtful voices from within our community—meeting us right where we are in this season of prayer, repentance, and hope. Meditations will be shared by email, posted on Facebook, and available as printed weekly copies at the church. Be on the lookout, and let these shared words accompany you as we walk the Lenten road together.
Good Friday
April 3, 2026
Rom 8:18-30
In the verses preceding verse 18 of Romans 8, Paul reflects on the lives of believers who now live “according to the Spirit” rather than “according to the flesh.” Writing to Christians who have been reconciled to God through Christ Jesus, Paul assures them that they are no longer subject to condemnation under “the law”. Yet he also acknowledges a struggle that believers cannot avoid. This struggle arises from the tension between our human impulses and the new life awakened by the Spirit of God. Paul presents this inner conflict as a form of suffering, and it sets the stage for today’s reading in Romans 8:18–30.
Paul argues that the suffering we presently endure is nothing in comparison to the fulfillment of God’s promise in the future. I read this passage as an encouragement for Christians to keep their focus on the future—even as we endure the struggles of the present. Paul’s optimistic perspective, I believe, shows us the proper frame of mind: we live with our feet firmly planted in the present, yet our sights fixed on the future when God’s promise is fulfilled and we share His glory.
Longing and emptiness, struggle and suffering—alongside ambition, desire, joy, and moments of elation—are all part of the human condition. We live in this cycle of pain and promise, never satisfied yet never without glimpses of something better. It is hope that sustains us through our suffering. Hope is the answer. In one of my favorite films, The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne expresses this idea simply when he says to Red, “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things.”
Dudley Perry
