I am hopeless at giving things up for Lent. I remember one year it was day three of Lent and the cookie was in my mouth when my lovely daughter said, "I thought you were giving up sweets for Lent?" So, last year I resurrected this old blog and blogged every Wednesday during Lent. I love to write. Writing for me is therapeutic, it is meditative, it is prayerful, and I enjoy it! So, blogging during Lent, year 2 begins...
Tesa Golden is a part of the Greenland Hills UM Church family and she and I have been praying about a movement during Lent. It is a movement to do an act of kindness for another person every single day during Lent. We wanted to document those kindness acts on social media with a hashtag. We have been praying about it and the Holy Spirit kept nudging us both toward a particular hashtag. This past weekend, we were praying about it and Sunday morning at 9 am worship our amazing pianist Robert and Minister of Worship Arts Kristi Hassell played a duet of This Little Light of Mine. Tesa looked over at me and asked if I requested them to play that song. No! It was the Holy Spirit! So, Holy Spirit, you win. Our act of kindness during Lent hashtag is
Tesa wrote on Facebook this morning, "I absolutely believe that we will change the world by following our heart, our calling, our inner wisdom, being or becoming who we are meant to be, who GOD created us to be, who we were put on this earth to be.
In the past year I have gone from the exhausting task of trying to be who I thought the person standing in front of me wanted me to be to learning who I really am and showing up as that person to all who will see me. It's glorious and much easier! Not only has it changed me, but I believe that it has changed my family, my friends, and my community like a piece of the puzzle fitting in the right place makes the whole picture a little more complete.
Instead of giving something up for Lent this year to honor the sacrifices of Jesus, I want to try to show love, forgiveness, kindness to others and BE more like Jesus...I want to SEE others and have them SEE me by letting my light shine.
So, regardless of your religious beliefs, will you shine your light with me at some point in the next 40 days? And will you share those experiences of how your callings are changing the world?"
Tesa, here is my story of sharing kindness for today.
This morning the dog woke me up at 4:45 am because she needed to go outside. My alarm woke me up an hour later at 5:45 am. I was at the church by 6:40 am because we have a 7:00 am Service of Ashes for Ash Wednesday. At 6:50 am everything was ready and I was questioning my sanity. Who gets up this early to get ashes? Why did I plan worship at 7 am? I am not doing this next year! I am tired! I want to go home!
And then people began to come. We had 10 bulletins and we 10 ten people. Okay, God, okay, I get it. Sometimes I imagine God telling me to stop worrying about everything and to just show up. Be present. God will work it all out.
The lesson for me today is about showing love, forgiveness and kindness to MYSELF by showing up. Trusting in God that if I am present, if I give all of myself to whatever it is that I am doing, then God will use it for good.
At 9 am I was standing by the doors as our Preschool families came for the day. We were giving ashes to go and I realized that I should probably say something age appropriate to preschoolers that wanted ashes. "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return" is a bit abstract for preschoolers. So, I said to the preschoolers, "This cross reminds us that God loves us."
This first day of Lent, may God remind me that God loves me and may God remind you that God loves you. #ThisLittleLightOfMine
2 comments:
In your words...I'm honored to be in ministry with you.
Amazing
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