Lent is off to a good start here in our household. Last night Roy helped with the pancake supper at the Episcopal church he goes to on Saturday morning. He loves their men's Bible study. Roy is a great pancake maker but he is also a good cleaner upper. He got there a little too late to help cook. So he stayed around and helped mop up syrup and butter from the tables.
I know that Lent is spelled with an e when it has to do with the season before Easter but keeping the lint screen in the dryer from building up with lint is almost a daily thing. So clearly I practice lint all year long. This morning as I sit here looking at the cloud filled sky with patches of light I am thinking of Lent. It is Ash Wednesday, a day not really observed by Baptists as a whole, but this Baptist is going into Easter with the forty days of Lent. Margaret Feinberg challenged her readers to see what they could 'lay a hold of in Christ' this season instead of giving something up. Sometimes Lent seems to be associated by nature with New Year resolutions...start out strong and sometime after the third week you stop observing Lent or totally forget those resolutions. If I felt led to give something up, of course I would be tempted to give up stuff like going to church, not ordering from Nordstrom...you get the line of thought here. This blog post by Wayne Stiles gives me much to think about.
These verses are my Lent verses to base my experience in laying a hold of Christ.
Hebrews (The Voice translation)
12 So lift up your hands that are dangling and brace your
weakened knees. 13 Make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame in
you won’t be put out of joint, but will heal.
I know, strange verses. I usually used this for playing sports. But these verses have deeper meaning this year. I am not going to come right out and announce my Lenten choice but I certainly will be writing about it in the coming weeks.
Looks like the first reading of this season will be the Living Will and Medical Power of Attorney that Roy has so lovingly researched and printed. (Maybe I should rename it Lenten Will) He even went through the documents and put little flags where I need to have witnesses sign the documents. He is probably biting the bullet in not saying anything to me like he did when I hadn't shown any interest in reading the refinance contract on our house. This morning before leaving for the office he asked me to at peruse everything and know what I was signing up for. That might be what I am not signing up for. I could hear the strain in his voice...Maybe I should have picked up clues from him last night when he kept interrupting the riveting episode of Dance Moms to point out how he was flagging certain pages.
Happy First Day of Lent! I have already participated in Lint this morning. Got a load of clothes in the dryer.
1 comment:
Would love for you to expound upon the concept of "laying a hold of Christ." This is good stuff...
Post a Comment