Today is Ash Wednesday and also the first day of Lent. Not everyone in the Protestant faith practices lent but it can be a great way to prepare for Easter and practice discipline. I was reminded about it listening to the radio this morning and immediately had the thought that I should probably give up facebook. I didn’t want to, though! I love facebook and being connected to everyone. As I got out of my car and walked into the building the “suggestion” grew inside as I argued with myself so that by the time I got to my desk I decided that God would like for me to do that – take a break from facebook for this 40-day journey to Easter, so, I am.
I’ve been looking for resources online, maybe a printable devotional I could use with my family but haven’t found what I’m looking for yet. While reading and searching I’ve realized that there can be much more to this journey toward Easter with Jesus than just giving up something for Him. Some people choose to “add” something to their day-to-day life sometimes, like more intentionally doing something for someone in need, forgiving someone, purposefully spending extra time reading God’s Word or quietly thinking/meditating, intentionally thanking God or journaling praises every day…many possibilities. This time can be more than just a time to deprive myself of something I like! That makes it even more appealing to me.
I’ve been restless the last few weeks and I know that is largely due to not spending quality time with God – quiet, alone, on purpose, just to be with Him. I have friendships, or really acquaintances, in which I don’t really ever get past small talk or pleasantries to really know that person, to dig deeper and grow close to them. Those surface relationships are okay but don’t really fulfill me, at least not for long (as I’m sure they don’t do much for those friends). I need much more than pleasant greetings, polite questions of “how are you?” and smiles. Continue reading
Has your computer ever crashed? Have you ever had to completely format the hard drive and re-install everything, starting over? I’ve been through this ingratiating process a few times and while it’s aggravating enough to pull some hair and can be a big pain if you lose files or data, it is nice to have a fresh start. When the disk has been completely wiped clean and loaded up anew with the programs it runs so much better and more quickly. There aren’t all those downloaded, uploaded, accumulated files and programs that piled up over the last year or so. All the temp files that were dragging the system down are gone. Any spam or spy ware – gone! It’s clean and zippy – ready to go. You can almost hear your computer sigh a happy “ahhhhh.”
Along the Narrow Path 