+Lent2010: Ash Wednesday and the Lenten Journey+

So typically people give something up for lent. However, I have decided to add something on. I know, I know, I'm already so busy. But that's the point. This is a different kind of adding on. Sacrificing something for Lent helps you focus on that one thing. With that said, I am focusing on my spirituality. I have committed to meditating for 5 minutes a day (just 5...) and blogging about the meditation for the day. I get the Daily UCC Devotional and the Inward/Outward post, AND I have the Episcopal Relief and Development Lenten Devotional (ERDLD). Between the three of these, I will find something to blog about daily. This gives me time to separate myself from the academia of my final semester and the craziness of everyday life.

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logistics: I will start with the scripture or an excerpt (depending on the source about which I am writing) followed my by thoughts.

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"So this is the dilemma: remembering that God is all loving and all forgiving, and at the same time accepting accountability for the fact that we just don't get it." (ERDLD)

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One of my friends is a Young Adult Volunteer through the PCUSA and is located at Vanderbilt University as an assistant in the Chaplain's Office. She was telling me the other day that she has to write the reflection for tonight's Ash Wednesday service but was struggling for words. To help her, I gave her my thoughts. I said, "You know, I think Ash Wednesday is about humbling ourselves and recognizing our humanity and mortality all in the same day. From dust we were made and to dust we shall return. It reminds us that we are insignificant little specks in history and on this earth. But despite our status, God still loves us." When we, as dust, drift too far God pulls us back in and forgives us. No matter what, God loves us and cares for us. So often we are expected to be everything and do everything and care for everything and achieve everything and love everyone and be with everyone and love God all at the same time. But we are just dust. We don't need to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. And most of the time (for me anyway) loving God comes last on that list. Spending time with God is the last thing on my mind when I have hundreds of pages to read and several pages to write, meetings to attend and people to care for. But guess what

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God forgives us. And God loves us.

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So this Lent I am committing myself to meditating and blogging. Spending time with God in silence and through the typed word. I am letting myself be vulnerable to you all who read. But that's what being dust is all about. Being vulnerable and being messy and knowing... that no matter what...

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God still loves us.