Today (yesterday now, as I've had to walk away from this one too many times) begins the Lenten Season, and as is the case with me every year, I tend to kvetch a great deal about what my choice might be, in the fasting and "denying thyself". It's a process. Serious biz, for me. I'm Lutheran. It's supposed to be. Right?
We don't just dive in, go all willy-nilly, run amok, get down and party loud singing "Hallelujah!". We're only two steps away from our oldest brethren in the broken body of Christ we humans have created; the even more entrenched in stoicism and pomp, the Catholics. We have to look really deep.
You know I'm attempting snark, right? How's it workin' for me? Eh?
I've given up every typical choice a person could make during this season. Meat. Sugar. Caffeine. Facebook. I. GAVE. UP. FACEBOOK. Forty days. Yes I did. I gave up mascara one year, with the sin of "vanity" in mind. I have plenty of baby fine lashes, only, well...they're baby fine. I look like a twelve year old boy without my magic mascara. VANITY. More recently, I gave up my quad venti hazelnut latte. Know me, know what hell for forty days is. :-) (Kidding, it really was much easier than I imagined). I've even gone so far as to try to give up my beloved books. THAT was a dismal season; I failed, miserably.
This evening, as I was being let down, TERRIBLY, as my hurt heart and mind were screaming to me; by my family who didn't attend our church's 7pm Lenten Service with me, my disappointment became the catalyst to my choice this year. I'm not giving up one single material ANYTHING. I really am going deeper. Digging harder.
I'm giving up complaining. I'm giving up being offended, and I'm giving up allowing my feelings to be hurt.
I realized all this, going in. I was given a tool to begin my work (and BOY is it going to be some difficult work), going out. My pastor recommended two books to us, to help us reflect, through this season. He suggested we might find them online. I was fortunate to snag one of the two copies in my church's library.
Welcome to the Lenten Season, and HAPPIEST of reading to you.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1380885.What_s_So_Amazing_about_Grace_
