Pre Lent... Exhale.

Today at our church, we spent time preparing and setting up for embarking on Lent together. We, of course, join the historical and world community of faith who follow the church calendar journey toward Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter.

Our good friend, Troy, put together a “Lent Book” which will serve as the metronome for our community this season. I think you can get a .pdf of the book off the Mars Hill website.

As for my thoughts, I can’t say I’m looking forward to Lent. Is it really possible to look forward to it? It’s the time in the church calendar when we deliberately slow down and walk the long, important, soul-searching, gut wrenching journey toward the cross.

In life I find it's...
...my tendency to seek resolution.
Lent forces me to live in the world of the unresolved.

...my preference to only think big picture.
Lent forces me to look at the details.

...my habit to study God.
Lent reminds me that God studies me.

...my pressure to have it all together.
Lent tells me that I need to be put back together.

...my personality to be shallowly optimistic.
Lent makes me find a deeper hope in the darkest corners of my life and my world.

I'm trusting that the specifics of my own Lenten journey will unfold. I guess that’s why it’s a journey. I breath a slow, pensive exhale, and get ready for Lent.

As for our family, we talked today about Lent and how we would take this journey together. There are things we are fasting from and fasting toward as we seek solidarity with the cross and solidarity with our world.

We officially begin our journey, appropriately, with ashes on Wednesday.

Exhale.