It feels like I've only had a moment to catch my breath since finishing the Advent/Christmas blogathon and now Lent has arrived. This year that means not only countdown to Easter but the countdown to Easter school (a big chunk of my final few months of formal ordination training), which begins the day before Palm Sunday. Between now and then there's quite a bit of work to do.
This year for Lent, after three years of Love Life Live Lent, it felt like time for a new challenge so I've signed up for 40 Acts: "40 days of giving back, doing good and living generously"
Every day a new act pops into my in-box with a short, medium and longer suggestion of something to do. Today was all about thinking about the circles of people you belong to, their interconnectedness, praying for them and thinking how your generosity could benefit them in Lent - I made a doodle as you can see!
I took part in the Ash Wednesday service at St Michael's this evening. It's a quiet, penitential service, which some folk might hate the idea of, but we're all broken, imperfect beings and sometimes we mess up. It's good sometimes to reflect back on some of the not-so-great things we've done and said, or things about ourselves or in our lives that may be harmful to us or others. Lent should be about flipping that stuff around and 40 Acts helps by giving us ways to make the world a bit lovelier.
Faith, my daughter blew me away when I got home from church. As part of today's act she's made a WhatsApp group of her best friends and will be telling them each day's act, letting them know what she's doing and encouraging them to join her. It's prompted her friends to ask questions about what Lent is and why we do stuff. I appear to have a little evangelist!
“He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
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