Lent: Day 40

So, obviously my Lent count has included Sundays, so it will end at 47 days.  It's been a really interesting time.  What I'm learning is that which helps me pursue You and that which doesn't.  I also think I'm going to have to be aware in the future that it is not always the same thing every day.  In other words, I like to go on these times of discipline.  For example, for 40 days I'm going to write a poem for You every day, or for the rest of this year I'm going to read the gospels once a week, or giving something up for Lent, or getting up every morning to read through the Bible, or whatever.  Sometimes those disciplines just become dead.  What I need to learn is attention.

To pay attention to what you are doing.  To recognize as I tell my tennis team.  A relationship doesn't always work in the same way every time.  I must be aware of that.  Aware of what You are trying to say to me.  I think perhaps the most important thing that has happened this Lent is that I have unearthed a simple prayer that I used to pray with regularity, "Speak to me, speak through me."  I don't know why that faded away but I could certainly use it to be true in my life.

It took Eugene pointing me back to the personal, Exodus pointing to the right actions and attitudes, and frustration of spirit to make it all visible.  But solid optimism has been restored to me.  It could snow another 9 inches today, and I have been renewed enough to say..."Sunday is on the way" and guess what, "the tomb is empty!"