Not planned to give up this much for Lent

God, I saw someone say they weren’t ready to give quite so much up for Lent, and it’s true. I’m not ready to give up friends and seeing grandparents, I’m not ready to give up babysitting and going out to eat, and I’m definitely not ready to give up school for my kiddos, and we will surely miss church on Sunday. More than giving up is what I’m taking on. I’m taking on the health of my entire community, I’m learning to appreciate how teachers work, teach, grade and keep everyone (including themselves) for day on end, I’m relearning the art of boredom. I’m figuring out how a new structures and rhythms of schedule and living together. I’m finding ways to be connectional in new (and old) ways. I’m finding time: time to walk and prioritize, time to wonder at morality, time to care. It’s not the Lent I had planned, but it’s the one I have been given. Lord help me to not give up for Lent I pray, give me the resources, relationships and reality checks I need to carry on, and continue to walk with me I pray.

Amen.

Thanks for the statement Andy Crouch

“Señor, (escuché) a alguien decir que no estaba listo para renunciar a tanto esta cuaresma. Pero así es. No estoy lista para dejar a mis amistades o dejar de ver a los abuelos. No estoy lista para dejar la niñera o el salir a cenar. Y definitivamente no estoy lista para dejar la escuela de mis nenes, y definitivamente me hará falta la iglesia los domingos.

“Más de lo que dejo, es lo que tomo. Estoy tomando la responsabilidad por la salud de mi comunidad entera. Estoy aprendiendo a apreciar como las maestras y los maestros trabajan, enseñan, corrigen y mantienen a todos (incluyéndose) día a día. Estoy aprendiendo de nuevo el arte del aburrimiento. Estoy descifrando nuevas estructuras y ritmos de calendario y vida juntos. Estoy aprendiendo las nuevas (y viejas) maneras de ser conexional. Estoy encontrando tiempo: tiempo para caminar y priorizar, tiempo para cuestionar la moral, tiempo para cuidar (y preocupar).

Author: katyandtheword

Pastor Katy has enjoyed ministry at New Covenant since 2010, where the church has solidified its community focus. Prior to that she studied both Theology and Christian Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary. She also served as an Assistant Chaplain at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and as the Christian Educational Coordinator at Bethany Presbyterian at Bloomfield, NJ. She is an writer and is published in Enfleshed, Sermonsuite, Presbyterian's today and Outlook. She writes prayers, liturgy, poems and public theology and is pursuing her doctorate in ministry in Creative Write and Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. She enjoys working within and connecting to the community, is known to laugh a lot during service, and tells as many stories as possible. Pastor Katy loves reading Science Fiction and Fantasy, theater, arts and crafts, music, playing with children and sunshine, and continues to try to be as (w)holistically Christian as possible. "Publisher after publisher turned down A Wrinkle in Time," L'Engle wrote, "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was too difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adult's book, anyhow?" The next year it won the prestigious John Newbery Medal. Tolkien states in the foreword to The Lord of the Rings that he disliked allegories and that the story was not one.[66] Instead he preferred what he termed "applicability", the freedom of the reader to interpret the work in the light of his or her own life and times. View all posts by katyandtheword