Happy to be Here!

Wow - I am just happy to be here! Last year I never could figure out how to actually write anything - see how much I have learned in a year! LOL!

Lent is one of my favorite times of year - actually it is my 2nd favorite right behind Christmas. I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church and didn't even know what Lent was until I became an Episcopalian. I can still remember my first Lenten season, well, the first one I observed. It was 1995 in Odessa, Tx. I don't remember a whole lot up until Holy Week - the week prior and including the first Easter Sunday. As we participated in the events leading up to Easter morning - I can remember an actual anticipation - It felt very much like I was on the journey with Christ heading to the cross. It was the most glorious Easter Sunday I had ever experienced. For the first time for me, it had little to do with the new dresses or the gloves and hats. It was truly about the resurrection of My Lord!!!

I have done many things to observe Lent - I did actually give up chocolate one year - it was rough and I cheated more than once! For me it is about discipline. It is giving up something very special to me - or adding something that is a sacrifice. I want to go on a journey with God. I want to have to lean on Him in order to make it through. I want to feel Him close and grow closer to Him.

A friend posted this morning on Facebook that when her son was little he told her he wasn't giving up anything for Lent. Being Catholic, she was shocked at first, especially when he said, "Instead of giving up something I am gonna play more with Johnny." Thank God she was too shocked to say anything because his next words were, "No one really ever plays with Johnny, so I think that is what God would want me to do."

This is what Lent is to me - a time to find out more of what God wants me to do and to stop doing - and implement them into my world. If I can do it for 40 days - maybe, just maybe, some of the good with stick with me and continue on after Easter. I sure hope so.