Can These Dry Bones Live? A Lenten Journey from Death to Life
By Matthew Nash
Can These Dry Bones Live? A Lenten Journey from Death to Life
By Matthew Nash
Somedays I feel like a pile of dry bones.
Do you ever feel like that?
Do you ever look in the mirror and wonder if you have the strength to make it through the next season of life, the next day, the next hour?
I think if we are honest, we all have moments like those. Life can be overwhelming and sometimes it doesn’t take a lot for our heart and soul to become dry. We live life at such a frenetic pace and are often rushing from one thing to the next, we don’t prioritize our own soul care and inner spiritual formation.
Sometimes the storm rages in us, and sometimes it rages all around us.
This storm within and without is especially true right now in our world where the sense of a collective deep sigh is real. There is war. There is division. There is deep loss.
This week I checked in with friends of mine around the world, and everyone is feeling it. It is like we are all asking the same question:
Can these dry bones live?
For many people all over the world, the next forty days will be a period where they focus on withholding something from their daily life to focus more thoughts on the Divine. Lent has been observed by people since the fourth century to focus on their inner life (their soul, heart, and mind) as they prepare for Easter. Some people give up chocolate, some alcohol, some social media. You may choose to do this; I can only speak from my experience. Each year I choose a couple things to give up so I can spend more time and energy on a deeper connection to God. This time can be healing for us and serve as a RESET before we celebrate Easter.
Do you need a reset right now? I know I do.
BREATH WORK
For now, though, let’s just start with our breath.
Take a big deep breath and hold it for a couple seconds. Now release that breath and slowly exhale. Do it again. Do it a third time.
The practice of breath work can reintegrate us when we feel stress, worry, anxiety, fear, or anger. When we can take a moment throughout our day and reintegrate ourselves through our breath, it is a way of us saying a collective yes that our dry bones can live. God is as close as our next breath, and in fact, the same word for breath in both Hebrew (ruach) and Greek (pneuma) is the same word for God’s Spirit.
God’s spirit is breath.
A STORY LIKE OURS
We are not the only ones to ever ask the question, can these dry bones live. In the Scriptures, God asked this question of a person a long time ago. The story is in Ezekiel 37. You see, Zeke was a prophet, and he writes during one of the darkest periods of Israel’s history. The people have been subject to corrupt leaders; destruction and deceit are all around them because of their own brokenness and the brokenness of others.
If it sounds familiar, it is. Their story is our story.
As you read this story slowly, ask God to reveal to your mind and heart what resonates with you. What do you notice? What word or phrase stands out?
This is a good practice that can help us really learn about ourselves and God in a deeper way.
Ezekiel 37
The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
So, I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So, I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore, prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”
Was there anything that came up for you as you read? Maybe take some time today or this week and journal about the words and phrases that God brought to your mind.
As I read that, the phrase that stood out to me most was, “I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.”
Where do you need to come to life?
SHIPWRECKED
At the end of the story, we learn why the bones are dry. They are dry because their hope is gone, and they feel cut off. I can relate to that in so many ways. One of the areas I struggle in is embracing the gifts God has given me and stepping into the light of his grace. When I began Kardia Community, the first month I was gripped with anxiety and imposter syndrome. I struggled in believing that I could do what God had called me to do. I was in my own head and believed all the false narratives and doubts.
I felt like I was on a ship in the middle of a storm, and I was trying to sail the boat all by myself. I didn’t reach out to anyone during that time. I was trying to just talk myself out of my anxiety, fear, and depression. I bought a bunch of new books on Amazon thinking that would help. It didn’t. I needed to experience a shipwreck. That may sound harsh, but I needed it. I needed to die to the things that I was holding on to with a vice grip, and once I realized that I was never really in control anyway, I had more joy and hope that the storm would pass.
When have you had a shipwreck in your life? Do you feel like you came out of it in better shape or worse shape?
“In the shipwreck, you may feel like you lost it all. Everything is in pieces. But in the fragments, there are planks that remain—pieces of desire, of dreams, of hope, of imagination, of longing, that rise to the top of you even now. They are no longer attached neatly together, but they are still afloat in the swirling chaos of you. You may not need all of them. Perhaps you don’t need many of them. But you almost certainly need one of them. Wherever and however, you feel your soul still adrift, grab hold of one of them. Don’t cling too tightly to it; let the weight of it hold you up rather than the other way around. Anything that’s survived by now surely has something of Spirit’s power in it. It may be a plank that is older than you, a plank that might outlast you.” (Jonathan Martin, How to Survive a Shipwreck)
I was blind to the reality of who I really am. When I let myself believe that my bones will always be dry and lifeless, then it was easy to lose hope. After my month of being paralyzed by fear, I went away for a prayer retreat and had a complete reset. I reminded myself of the true narrative that I am a citizen of a better Kingdom, a beloved child of God, who has been invited into a much better story of love, grace, and truth.
Listen to this song, “Citizens” by Jon Guerra, and you will be encouraged to live into this better story the way I have been lately.
The most haunting part of this song for me are these words:
“There is a wolf who is ranting
All of the sheep they are clapping
Promising power and protection
Claiming the Christ who was killed
Killed by a common consensus
Everyone screaming “Barabbas”
Trading their God for a hero
Forfeiting Heaven for Rome.”
WHOLEHEARTED LIVING
How often are we forfeiting the invitation for the Kingdom of Heaven for the kingdoms of this world? This is the challenge during Lent. Whose kingdom are we living for?
We all have an effective will, and we use it every day. We are ridiculously in charge of our choices. This is both freeing and frightening. Our choices don’t define us, but we can be formed by them. Unfortunately, most of what we think are choices are habits. The way our brains are wired is that every time we do something over and over, we build a new neural pathway that we drive on in our mind, and the more we drive on that path, the deeper it gets and the more we stay in that lane. Neuroscientists have often said, “What fires together, wires together.”
This is why we need Lent.
Lent is a time where we choose to form a new path. A path that is less about us and more about the one who made us. We choose to sacrifice many things so we can take that time, treasure, and talent and direct it more toward our formation to be more like Jesus.
Lent is really a journey toward wholehearted living.
“The pursuit of wholehearted living has enjoyed renewed interest in recent years, but we dare not mistake it for a fad; nor do I want to reduce it to the spiritual equivalent of an Instagram influencer’s lifestyle brand. To live and love fully, to embrace human vulnerability rather than exploit it, to try to make sense of our place in this fragile yet beautiful world, to seek to understand our role in proclaiming God’s love and justice – this has been the work of generations. It’s the quest that creates our greatest works of art and our most profound moments of quiet tenderness. It’s the promise that calls us to greet every sunrise and surrender to every sunset. It’s the best hope of our oldest prayers, both on the days when I believe as well as on the days that I don’t.” (Rachel Held Evans, Wholehearted Faith)
When we choose to be vulnerable over striving to prove ourselves, this is the path to wholehearted living. When we choose tenderness over seeking to control every outcome, we choose wholehearted living.
These next forty days could be the start to a more embodied life where your dry bones are renewed with life.
One of the most incredible things that has happened to me in the last year was to be part of The Way Back to Ourselves community. We are a group of poets, writers, creatives, artists, and leaders, who are trying to live authentically and with humility. One of the phrases that Kimberly Phinney reminds all of us of constantly is “You belong here.”
To belong is one of our earliest heart cries as a human. We want to know that we have a place to belong, a place to be ourselves and to thrive and flourish. This is what it means for dry bones to live.
In the last ten years, one of my mentors from a distance has been a woman named Brené Brown. I cannot recommend her books more highly—all of them. She has lots of her work online as well in video format. Go watch it, read it, and learn from her. This is something she said about the power of belonging in her most recent book, Atlas of the Heart:
“True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are. Be here. Be you. Belong.”
I hope you know that you belong and you matter.
You are loved beyond your wildest dreams, and the longing you have in your soul for community, has a home here.
I want to close this Lenten essay with a poem by the late Celtic mystic and theologian John O’ Donohue.
For Longing
By John O’Donohue
Blessed be the longing that brought you here,
And quickens your soul with wonder.
May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire,
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.
May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease,
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.
May the forms of your belonging – in love, creativity and friendship –
Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul
May the one you long for long for you.
May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire.
May a secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling.
May your mind inhabit your life with the
sureness with which your body inhabits the world.
May your heart never be haunted by ghost-structures of old damage.
May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.
May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.
May your dry bones live, my friend!
Grace and Peace to you,
Matthew Nash
MATTHEW NASH
CONTRIBUTOR & AMBASSADOR
Matt is a writer, spiritual director, and former missionary in Rwanda. Matt has been published in Good Words for the Young: A Children’s Devotional, which is centered around the writings of George MacDonald. He is working on his first book, The Joy of Disruption, which will be published in 2025. Matt spent almost 30 years as a pastor and church planting trainer and recently founded Kardia Community, which provides soul care and spiritual formation for people. Matt has written for Church Planter Magazine and is a current ambassador and writer for Ekstasis Magazine. Matt lives with his wife Jeana and their daughter in San Diego and enjoys reading, traveling, and getting out to nature as much as he can living in the city.
You can find Matt on Instagram @matthewnash1 and on his Substack at aslanonthemove.substack.com. He writes about soul care, grief, mental health, and spiritual formation.