Hunger and Healing: A Meditation Exercise for Lent

As you journey through Lent, we’ve created this reflection exercise for you to pair with Fuller Studio’s Liturgical Meditation video, “Hunger and Healing.” Follow the steps below to engage in this meditative, reflective exercise. We recommend using a journal to record your responses.

1. Watch Fuller Studio’s Liturgical Meditation video, “Hunger and Healing.” As you watch the video, take note of words or phrases spoken from Isaiah 58 that jump out at you.
   
2. Watch the video again, but this time take note of the words or thoughts that come to you as you reflect on the arid landscapes featured in the video.
3. Now, take a minute to read all of the words and phrases you wrote down. From your list, select one to two words or phrases that feel the most important to you. In other words, choose the words or phrases that evoke emotion, stir deep thoughts, and/or that you feel the Holy Spirit is highlighting just for you. With those words or phrases in mind, take time to meditate on them. This could look like sitting in silence or repeating the words or phrases to yourself. The goal is to make space to be still and quiet. (If this practice feels difficult for you, try setting a timer for even just one minute.)
4. In this season, how does the word you highlighted and/or the words “hunger” and “healing” connect to your work and leadership? What do you sense God inviting you to know, be, or do as a response to this meditation?
5. Finally a moment to think about the title of this video, “Hunger and Healing.” Which of these two words, hunger or healing, feels most important to you? Are there any connections you see between “hunger” or “healing” and the words that you meditated on earlier? You can think or journal your thoughts.
6. No close with prayer. This can be a prayer thanking God (thanksgiving), a prayer asking something from God (petition), or a prayer expressing your grief and sorrow (lament). You can pray this to yourself or write it out in your journal. Finish your prayer by saying or writing down these words from Isaiah 58:9, “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’”