The Journey of Lent...1 week in.

I suppose if nothing else, one objective of Lent is to get further in touch with our failures, which then highlights our need and gratitude for our God.  

This season of Lent, like Advent, is an opportunity I try to take advantage of observing as a family.   That means I need to coordinate it.  What do we need to focus on?  Are there special activities we should participate in?  How do we make the most of positioning ourselves to know God more?

2019 seems to be a year, with two young teens living in an affluent community, to reset attitudes to gratitude.   A rhyme my husband particularly likes. 

How do we do that?  Right now....a couple ways. 
One - attitude bowls. 
One bowl receives black licorice (a flavor my kids despise) jelly beans when complaining, selfish attitudes are present.  The other bowl receives those yummy Cadbury mini milk-chocolate eggs when attitudes of helpfulness and thankfulness are demonstrated. 

Today there are three black jelly beans and about 7 chocolates.  Not bad.  I'm realizing that busy-ness and having company in for the weekend helps minimize the time available for grumbling.  We'll see how this plays out over the remaining days.  The dog has gotten in on the action too...sneaking onto the table and eating both bowls clean.  >sigh<  When it's time to share in the penalty jelly beans and reward eggs, we all partake.  We don't assign a reward or penalty per person who contributed it.  Instead, we all suffer from complaining so we all eat black jelly beans.  Likewise, we all benefit from gratitude expressed, so we each enjoy the yummy chocolate. 

In addition, for the sake of daily reflection, I've written daily devotions for us to get us  into God's Word and become that much more familiar with God's thoughts and heart about our how we use our words, and how words are connected to what's going on in our hearts. 

So... how does this fit in to being faced  with our failures and needing Jesus? 

First...God's Word always  shines light on our darkness.  Thankfully, He also shows us the way to repentance and forgiveness.   Whew!

Second...my own aspirations and expectations of how intentional impactful Lent will be for our family individually and together always leave me a little frustrated and disappointed because I just cannot seem perfectly execute the plans.  Devotions are going well for everyone but we still can't find time to sit down and discuss together.   On some days I'm not paying attention enough and I'm sure I've missed critical jelly bean or chocolate entries.
I'd hoped to blog more to detail more daily experiences, but I fill my time with many things - some needed and productive, but some not.   

These issues are not new in me and certainly not new at all in God's experience with humanity overall.   The law was given by God and only revealed how incapable we are of keeping it in any kind of consistent way.  Without Jesus, our only option is failure and doom.  Thankfully Jesus paid the penalty of our severe righteousness shortfall, and His resurrection power exists to lift us - decision by decision - out of the grip of sin addiction. 

All because HE LOVES US.

This is where gratitude truly begins.

The Journey of Lent - 2019

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From Biola University...the Lent Project.  Excerpt from today's entry:

"  "for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

Dust we are.

Dust – that ever-present and bothersome gritty waste that serves no purpose, it seems, than to muck up our furniture and floors. I came from dust, I constantly clean away the dust, and one day I will return to dust. That is the message of Ash Wednesday – Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: 
...Yet today is not just about our mortality but it is a day of repentance – Grant these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence…. God we have not loved you with our whole heart, mind and strength… We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves… We have been deaf to your call to serve… We have grieved your Holy Spirit… We confess our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience of our lives… We confess our self-indulgent appetites and ways… We confess our intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts… We confess our negligence in prayer and worship, our failure to commend the faith that is in us, our blindness to human need and suffering, our prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from us….
Restore us, good Lord… Accomplish in us the work of your salvation.. Accept our repentance, O Lord."

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I can't say it any better. 

This mass of dust formed miraculously into a body, breathed into life by God Himself, declared as very good and His handiwork...I have marred and scarred it up with my destructive, sinful self.  SELF.  The problem.

On this day that provides the opportunity to directly- DIRECTLY - look at the reality of mySELF in the mirror of His perfection, may I- may we all-be struck motionless in awe by the truth that our despicable reality has hope.  Hope that we will not be obliterated from God in His disgust of us.  Ash Wednesday reminds us that that is what we deserve.  Actually, we deserve worse:  an eternity of never-ending punishment.  Ash Wednesday reminds us that when our body is done housing our soul for these earthly years, and that body decays back to dust, our soul and the essence of who we were created to be will stand before God Himself.  He will then decide for us if our eternity is in forever bliss with Him or in eternal torment and isolation away from Him. 
Ash Wednesday is an opportunity to allow our eyes to recognize our shame in His holy mirror, BUT also to allow Him in His great love to take us by the shoulders and turn us to see His Son Jesus.  The journey of Lent can daily help our eyes focus on Him, strengthen our faith and begin to see the miraculous transformation that occurs in how God views us through the lens of Jesus who was our atoning sacrifice.