Lenten Disciplines

Not as sexy of a title as my last blog post... but, you know...

So, Lent is here as Ash Wednesday kicks this season off.  Yay Ash Wednesday!

During this 40 day period, people will often give something up as a spiritual discipline... Symbolizing a sacrifice like Christ's sacrifice on the cross.  The intent is to give up something that might be difficult and then spend the time (or money) working on your relationship with God.  (I think sometimes that part gets either forgotten or ignored...)

I haven't given anything up the last couple of years... 2 years ago, it was unintentional, but I gave up God...Last year, nothing just felt right... (at least that's what I remember...)

This year...I gave some thought about what I wanted to do.  And instead of giving something up, I really wanted to take something on.  And there were lots of things that I was kicking around... But, ultimately, came up with a couple of things!

This Lent, I am planning to have conversations with people who consider themselves to be atheist, agnostic, or have a complicated relationship with God.  This isn't for evangelistic reasons or to "save" anyone (I can't do that anyway...).  I suppose if anything in this, I want to give up my assumptions.  I assume some things about people who fit these categories... Not in a judgey way...But I assume & apply beliefs to them that may not be completely accurate.  So, I'd like to abandon any preconceived notions that I might have. (BTW-- if you consider yourself in any of those categories, I'd love to chat with you.  If you're local, I'll buy your meal...If not, Skype will be wonderful and I have a couple of those conversations set up already & when we are near each other, I'll take you out for a meal too!)

In addition to that, I'm going to participate in Look In Lent that was created by my friend Gregg Brekke. So, you'll see some of those posts here as I reflect on them.   

So, what are you doing for Lent?  Giving something up?  Taking something on?  Nothing?