Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the Lenten season in the church. It's a time of fasting, prayer, repentance, and introspection. It echoes Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness (which in turn echoes the motif of 40 years in the wilderness in the Hebrew Bible, and 40 days of the great flood, and...). It also traces the steps of Jesus as he nears Jerusalem--as he nears a fatal encounter with that city of fatal encounters.
It's a practice of many people to "give up" something for Lent. This is something I've done in the past. I've given up beer and other carbonated beverages, for example. I think once I tried to give up cursing.
I've also tried the practice of "taking something on" for Lent, like trying to pray every day or blog every day. I'm going to try to blog every day this Lent, too. But with a specific twist.
I was thinking about "giving something up" this year, and it struck me that giving up is exactly what I've been trying to avoid ever since I got out of Silver Hill more than a year ago now. So I think I'm going to blog for Lent about what I'm not giving up on, what I'm holding on to, what's keeping me going.
I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work, but here's my Lenten discipline: I'm going to blog about what I'm not giving up on.
We'll see where that goes.
Sounds great, Hosey. I'm excited to hear about what you're not giving up on...
ReplyDeleteHey Dave-- great minds think alike! I am writing a daily devotional and used a similar analogy-- as far as being in the wilderness when we have nothing but God, what will you cling to, whom/what will you not give up on? :)
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