We're contemplating the journey called Lent, here.
That is, we're eating cake, and watching tv, and sucking up all the things we plan to do without for the next 40 days. It's like a last-minute "fix" before the long haul.
Tomorrow over breakfast we'll pen a list of final Lenten promises. Not so much to dwell in it, but so that I can keep track...of who can eat today's leftover chocolate cake, and who can have computer time, etc. Far be it for me to tempt anyone into failure. Heaven's no.
The kids asked me this evening what I'm "giving up." I'm still not sure. God seems to be telling me to give up "holding in." I've been a bottled up mess of thoughts and stories and ideas...revelations and opportunities, and all sorts of just "stuff" filling up my head. I've been very restless lately, and feeling too busy to do any sort of writing. But these last days, it's as if I can't hold it in anymore, and God seems to be telling me just to let it go.
So one of my Lenten commitments is to quit holding back. To write every day, even if it seems trivial. I feel a physical~spiritual connectedness to each one of you...we need each other...that is, I need you all. God knows it, and he's encouraging me to reach out...to accept each of you, individually and as a whole, and the outstretched hand you offer each time you check in to read about my little corner of the world. He reminds me that none of us are in this alone. None of us are perfect. None of us are meant to be super-woman, super-mom, super-anything. Just meant to be faithful. And to hold each other up.
So to start these 40 days, I commit to be faithful. To continue to write. To share and to know that you're out there, lifting me up.
God is so good.
Prayers being offered that we may all have a transformative Lent...one that brings each of us closer to Jesus and the supreme love He has for each one of us.
And God was speaking outloud through little John tonight. We were discussing ways he could earn money to donate to the kids' Parish Lenten Mission project. Monies are being collected to help some Precious Blood Priests in Chicago who have set up a safe house for kids there. They're trying to raise money for a van to help transport kids safely through the bad neighborhoods.
Anyhow, John mumbled..."Mom, I"m gonna find ways to surprise you over these next 40 days...to earn the money. It would just be awesome to get enough so they could buy 2 vans!"
Yes, John. It would be awesome. And that's exactly how God must think...full of surprises, and better than we could expect/imagine.
Blessings to you all this Lenten season.
