About Our Youth
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Revertigo
by Shereen MarcusHave you heard of the phrase Revertigo? Its a thing - Google says so. Its the tendency of a person to revert back to an older version of themselves when around people from their past. It explains why when we travel back to our hometown for a weekend visit, our maturity declines a couple decades hanging out with old childhood friends. Or why siblings can laugh until their sides hurt over inside jokes as if they just happened. And yet, we are in fact grown adults with real responsibilities.
Sometimes the phenomenon also happens during Lent - we hit the time of year as if it is just a "default" season and revert to whatever we think we ought to be doing or reading or eating (or not eating). Lent is supposed to be a forward journey, and it is supposed to be new every year. Christ has something new to teach us every year. In writing our Lent series, "Follow Me" I was astonished at the artificial roadblocks we put up ourselves to stand in the way of our journey in following Christ - our fears, our pressures, our identity, logic... and yes, our revertigo. This Lent, let's not be like the Nazarenes who rejected Jesus in His own town, failing to see the Divinity through the Humanity and instead embrace the invitation to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.