ashes.

Ash Wednesday is today. Lent is marked by a time of prayer and preparation to celebrate Easter. The Sunday’s during Lent are called “Sunday’s in Lent” and do not count as the 40 days. I love that the 40 days signifies many things in the Bible, but mainly when Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness fasting and preparing for His ministry & facing temptations. It would have been easy during those 40 days to abandon His missions, but of course, He didn’t abandon it. He, in turn, continued on and truly lived (and died) as though He wanted God’s will and nothing less.  I am going to use this time of Lent as time for self-examination, relying on Christ alone, and repentance. I am going to give up sweets and fried foods. And, I am going to focus my attention off of myself. Hopefully, I’ll learn more about repentance and more about my God. And it will stick past Easter Sunday as I celebrate redemption and my resurrected Jesus that I claim to live and hope for.

What are you giving up?

thoughts.

How we live our days is how we live our lives.
-Annie Dillard.

how are you living your day today?

tgif.

1. I get to see two of my college roommates tonight!
2. Tomorrow is Missions Interview Day and we get to interview almost 50 students! Yes! That’s 20 up from last year!
3. Sunday starts the Midtown Women’s Book Club. Yessss.
4. I pray that I don’t fill my days so much that I forget about the One I’m serving.
5. Go to http://www.thetippingfamily.com/ right now!

i love today.

Imogen Heap is playing on Pandora. I’m about to leave work early to pack and head to Asheville with my hubby. Courtney and Allen found out today they are having 4 boys and 2 girls. (Only two weddings to pay for… awesome.) Last night was incredibly challenging for me (more on that later) and I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that counseling is somewhere in my future. Cartel’s lead singer will be singing straight to me tomorrow night. Yessss. There is an Christian illusionist at the conference tonight and I don’t really even know what that means. Happy love day.

second thoughts.

I just got a piece of Valentine’s Day candy and thought about my “I hate Valentine’s Day” post. I wanted to say that I still love candy and if it takes Valentine’s Day to get a free heartshaped gummy, I’m OK with that.

I am going to try and like the “sweetness” of Valentine’s Day this year. One of my friends at work is beside herself that I don’t like Valentine’s Day. So, I’m going to try and like it. But I still hate the consumerism it brings!

And thought of the day: I hate that I live for the weekends, or just that I live for the end of the work day. I hate that! But, who knows how to actually love being at work every day…? Not me.

lessons learned.

Passion and Purity by Elisabeth Elliot has always been one of my favorites. I am speaking at a youth group’s “True Love Waits”-type of deals next weekend and I’m about to read it again so that my mind can focus on purity within relationships and the mind of young girls. I found a journal last night that had a quote in it from the book that still stirs me and teaches me, even though I am now married and a one-man-no-doubt-about-it woman.

“We need to learn to live by the supernatural. Ordinary fare will not fill the emptiness in our hearts…How else will we learn to eat it, if we are never hungry? How educate our tastes for heavenly things if we are surfeited with earthly?…My heart was saying, “Lord, take away this longing, or give me that for which I long.’ The Lord was answering, ‘I must teach you to long for something better.’…God knew that giving me Jim when I wanted him would not provide the far more important training I needed for things to come. It was in learning to eat that Living Bread, sufficient always for one day at a time, that I was taught and disciplined and prepared for later things.” (p. 112-113)

I want to always, always, always long for something greater… something greater than my (great) husband…something greater than true friendships…something greater than a perfect job…something greater than a big family…something greater than a church, even. I pray I’m longing for something greater and not longing for anything less.

oh, cupid.

Valentine’s Day is coming up next weekend. More red roses and chocolate will be purchased than any other time all year until the 14th of February comes around again next year. I kind of hate this holiday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for love. But, Valentine’s Day is creating more consumerism in our culture that, in turn, changes more hearts towards sin and love of self. I am actually happy that Friday the 13th is the day before Valentine’s day. As I write this, I think about how creepy that makes me sound. Oh, well. That’s to show you how much I am discouraged by these silly traditions we have created. At first, Valentine’s was celebrated with handmade cards that were sent to people that you loved (even your momma.) Now, we have mass-produced cards with Hannah Montana asking everyone in your third grade class to “Be Mine” for you. We expect presents like jewelry, candy, flowers, and plush bears with “I love you” hearts dangling in their stuffed arms. The jewelry ends up in the jewelry box. The candy gets old or you eat it all and then feel crappy about your self image. The flowers die. The bears get thrown out. And, the next day… the 15th… people still feel lonely and consumerism still reigns in our society.

For Valentine’s Day, Brandon and I will be jumping up and down at a Cartel concert (coincidentally, Brandon probably fell in love with me at our first Cartel concert together). So, maybe we are romantics on Valentine’s Day. Nonetheless, boo to chocolate and flowers… our Cupid will be found singing into a mic in downtown Columbia and I’ll be frustrated with Brandon stepping on my toes as he tries to start what the Clements’ call a hardcore mosh pit and everyone else in the world calls flailing.

Go spend your money on something helpful to the people in our world.