Hello RHHB family below is the first piece in our Lent series. Amy Palmerton, who is a member of our own community, wrote it. You will find that Amy has finished this piece with a couple questions, which she has offered her own answers to as an example of how you could respond. Thank you, Amy, for agreeing to be a major contributor for this project and for being vulnerable and honest as and example for us all to follow. We hope this journey is a blessing to all you and we look forward to walking it together…

Welcome to Lent. This is a time where the church globally recognizes a season of intentional prayer, fasting and reconciliation in preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter.

We want to welcome you to an online space where you can discover some spiritual practices again (or for the first time), share stories about where you notice God in your daily life, and perhaps explore some of the ways that you can make space for God in this 40 day season.  (Technically, Lent is a little longer than 40 days, but the early church took Sundays off from fasting, as they tended to celebrate the resurrection each and every Sunday).  So whether you embrace a more orthodox view of this day and decided to fast from food for 40 days or whether you take these 40 days as an opportunity to explore some ways to be more charitable, we welcome you on a sacred journey that we are taking as a community, exploring ancient practices with modern technology and relevant life application.

Lent in everyday language is written off of the pages of my own story where I play the leading role of wife, mother, author, and sometimes-scholar of spiritual formation/soul care and prayer.  For each day of Lent, I am committing to fast from my coveted morning sleep (yikes) and practice the daily examen.  Simply put, the examen is a centuries old practice that helps us notice where God is working in our everyday-ordinary-activity filled lives.

If you have even a small desire to join in this 40-day journey, please know that you do not have to get up in the dark like I am!  But perhaps in this season of Lent where we might be tempted to give up eating sugar (again) or not participate in Lent at all (again). Perhaps we can make a change in the way we commonly spend 30 minutes or more of our day and simply ask ourselves two questions about our day.

That’s it.  Two questions.

Give up some time spent on pleasurable activities for 40 days.  Read through some reflective questions.  Respond here or in a journal or on your own blog.  And the hope for all of us is that we will learn together how to recognize what things in life are life giving and what things in our lives are more likely to bring us despair and disconnection.

1.  For what moment today am I most grateful?

Today I am most grateful for the moment I was able to have with my nine-year-old daughter who is hurting from a difficult friendship. She asked me to walk her up to the school building but then told me “That’s good mama. I’m fine now”. I stood and watched her walk straight into the place where her heart could surely be bruised again- across the pavement– getting smaller and smaller in the distance.  She never turned back.  It is a tug for me when I want to be available for all of my children’s painful moments, that somehow my grown-up presence will protect their little souls from damage.  I am deeply grateful that God is growing both of us in our ability to walk through pain, without letting the pain walk all over us.

2.  For what moment today am I least grateful?

I am least grateful for the moment when I was late for an appointment (again).  I stayed in the parking lot just a few minutes too late talking about nothing of consequence while the margin grew less and less for me to leave and be on time.  I arrived over 15 minutes late and I noticed how often this is the case for me.  I justify this behavior by telling myself that I just live “in the present” and ” I have no concept of time”.  But today when I walked in to the small room where the meeting had already started, I recognized a lack of care for others when I consistently show up late.  This is old behavior and it generally puts me in a cycle of guilt/shame/feeling immature.  Not fun.