Can I tell you how excited I am about our Fat Tuesday celebration tomorrow?? Ok, I'm way excited! Not only do I love a good party, but I love the idea of lots of us (I'm hoping there are lots of us-- with plenty interdepartmental mingling!)coming together. Pancakes, beads, games...I'm just way excited.
But as I sit here working on the Ash Wednesday services, I guess I already have at least one foot in Lent. (Such is the contradiction of being a preacher, I guess.) I've been wondering and pondering if I would do anything to observe Lent this year. Some years I fast various things, some years I try to add things to my already crazy life. This year, I think I'm going to do something that I've never done. I think I am going to conscientiously practice the "Spiritual Disciplines". I read RIchard Foster's Celebration of Discipline years ago, and I think I am going to reread it. THey way he has the disciplines grouped, there are seven. I am going to take a grouping each week and see how I can live into it, and look for the ways that God speaks through these. And fittingly, the last discipline is CELEBRATION, so the week following Easter will be a good time to explore the ramifications of that for my life.
Why am I telling you all this? Well, I am inviting you on the journey with me. I am hoping to be able to blog several times a week, with a focus on that journey (though I am sure there will be other things mixed in there.)
Want to know more about the classic "Spiritual Disciplines"? Check out Foster's Celebration of Discipline (which you can either get from COkesbury on Lawrenceville Hwy or from the Columbia Seminary bookstore-- if you want to go to Columbia, shoot me an email and I will tell you how to find it and what their hours are.) Another good resource is http://www.watersedge.tv/disciplines_intro.htm Though this website is great, it groups things slightly differently than does Foster.
Additionally, come check out the Ash Wednesday service in the chapel at 1030 this Wednesday. I'll have a handout which simplifies things a bit. If you're still thinking and praying about how or whether you want to observe Lent, this might be something to think about. You don't have to do all of them-- you could pick one, find out more about it, and follow it through Lent. I know time is scarce, but I invite you to think about keeping a Lenten journal. Perhaps God is trying to speak, but there is so much noise all around that you haven't been able to hear. Just a thought.
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