On fog and clarity and lent

Here in Northern Indiana, we’ve had a lot of fog during the past two days. The meteorological explanation is that we had snow and then the temperature rose and the melting snow becomes a ground level cloud. There was enough ground level cloud yesterday that many districts around us canceled classes.

Somehow, however, it seems that the fog in the atmosphere isn’t the only fog.

Today is the first official day of writing over at lent2008.wordpress.com. I had committed to start the writing in this group writing project, but I couldn’t find anything profound floating around in my brain.

So here’s where I started:

Today is supposed to be a day of great clarity. By this morning we were supposed to know who THE candidates for president are. We were supposed to have decided who the best football team ever is. We were supposed to know just how spiritual we are.It’s Ash Wednesday, and historically, those who have ash on their heads know that they are God’s servants in the face of ridicule, and those who don’t have ash on their heads know that they are God’s servants in the face of centuries of confusion.

As usual, however, what is running through my head this morning is a significant lack of clarity in the face of all of the tendency toward confusion. While candidates were talking to their supporters, tornadoes were killing at least 27 people. All the money spent on the campaigning would go far to help the people who are dealing with destruction and pain, but the money can’t bring back lives.

For the rest of that post and to read more about what we are doing for Lent, head over to lent2008.wordpress.com.

As you read what is coming from the heads and hearts of my seven co-writers, i think you’ll enjoy this lenten season more than you ever have (and I fully understand the irony of that statement. That’s why I wrote it.)

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Better together

I spent Advent blogging in two places, here and over at advent2007.wordpress.com. Over there I was creating a blogged advent calendar. It was an interesting adventure in daily blogging.

At the end of that time I reserved lent2008.wordpress.com. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, but I figured that it would be a good project.

Then one morning, I realized that I needed to make it a group project. As a result, there are 8 contributors who are signed on to write for the Lenten season. Although Lent starts with Ash Wednesday, February 6, the first of the posts is up today.

As people responded to the invitation, their hearts were pretty open:

I am interested. Willing. And scared. But fear is fleeting. And obedience … obedience is better than sacrifice. You obeyed the calling to do this in community, so I’ll answer the call too.

Well, it sure beats coming up with stuff for my own site, I’m in.
Thank you for hearing this call and for being so brave as to invite me
along.

This is a little scary to me, but I would like to ask the Lord to teach me through this opportunity and to share His answer to that prayer with others–count me in.

I am honored and humbled to be included in this holy mess. I was going
to give up writing for lent. Thanks for screwing that up Jon! But,
hey, if God says “Kill and Eat!” who am I to say it’s unclean?
I pray, and beg, and fully expect that we will draw things out of one
another we didn’t recognize in ourselves. And as we stumble around,
expectantly looking for the right words, that we may encounter The
Word, find Our Way, and discover Truth and Life.

May we be broken to be given.

What has been happening already in the email conversation is that these writers are already helping each other rethink the traditional “giving up” approach to Lent. There is a shift happening from giving up to offering up, from giving up to acting. It is a wonderful thing to watch.

We’ll be posting a couple times a week between now and Ash Wednesday. At that point, we’ll start writing daily. We aren’t sure where were going, but wherever it is, we’ll get there together.

——-

Thanks to Rob Hatch, Thomas Knoll, Anna Lenardson, Laurie Nichols, Connie Reece, Tom Swank, and Amy Van Huisen, spread from Maine to Texas to Minnesota, for being willing to live out here.

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