Here we go again...

This year, Lent comes early.  It feels as if we just got through celebrating Christ’s birth and now we shift our focus to his trip to Jerusalem. And mind you, it’s not a trip that he looked forward to. He knew the end result. Christ’ faithfulness in making that arduous journey in which he will be betrayed, denied, beaten, and killed, gives me hope, in a strange sort of way.

I’m looking forward to Lent this year, maybe more so than any previous Lenten seasons.  Since we’ve moved to Charleston, it has taken every ounce of energy just to keep afloat.  Things are not bad, it’s just been tough.  We’ve been displaced from home, from family, learning the small nuances of new churches, the ebbs and flows of a new community, new driving routes, and the ever pressing issues related to constant traffic.  Alone, this would have been tough enough, now mix in a 1 year-old and a precocious 4 year-old, and you can just feel the chaos that is often life.

So this Lent, I’m hoping to make some changes to the way in which things get done.  I’m looking to spend more time praying and listening, and less time fixing and yelling.  I want to spend more time in the Word, not just prepping for Sunday.  I’m going to try noticing life a little more, and not simply running from destination to destination.  My head will hit the pillow a little earlier, so that my routine in the morning may include some more exercise, namely running.  I want to spend more time noticing my wife and how amazing she is and less time worrying about myself.  I’m sure over the next 46 days I will lose my way and fall into old routines, but that’s where grace comes back into the picture.  If Jesus made the arduous journey, that was immensely more difficult that anything I am trying with God’s help, to accomplish then surely something will good come from all of it.

So here we go, time to jump in and begin, or begin again and again and again, to actually start living into being the person God wants me to be and the man my family needs me to be. May God bless this journey and whatever journey you are starting or continuing.