Lent

My ever-humorous brother (who else sends Sarcasm Wednesday cards??) sent me a note today asking:

What are you giving up for Lent? Your New Year's Resolution? Your sobriety? Your good judgement and personal restraint?

which was a nice follow up to the suggestion at my small group last night to give up sin for Lent.

Nice!

I read a great blog the other day about Lent which points to the importance of fasting, prayer and acts of service during Lent. I'm pretty sure fasting from your sobriety wasn't what they were thinking about.

Anyhow, in answer to the question that's been weighing on all of your minds, I'm giving up refined sugar for Lent. Seems like a small thing, but to someone who appears to live on muffins, diet Coke, etc, it's a big thing. No sucralose. No asperatame. No sugar. No cane syrup. No high fructose corn syrup. Which makes having a bad sweet tooth a bit of a drag. So, kudos to all those companies who don't fill their products full of sugar. You're making my life a whole lot easier. Did you know dried fruit is full of sugar?? What's with that? It's fruit. Fruit has it's own sugar - why do you need to add more? Pasta sauce is full of sugar. Huh? Salad dressing? This is a conspiracy people!

Off to the Ash Wednesday service tonight. I'm thankful that the season of Lent is here. It's a good time to stop and focus again. I've been feeling a drift and it's time to get re-centered.

Special Whiplash Edition

Things I've learned in the last 48 hours:

- Never assume you know what's going to happen
- Never cancel a free registration just because you think you aren't going
- Never assume you know what the heck's going on in your life
- Always check your credit card statements carefully, even when there's no activity on them
- Always fasten your seatbelt BEFORE saying that you're excited to see the next adventure God's going to take you on

SERIOUSLY. I feel like my life's been turned upside down in the last week. No, I'm not suddenly married with kids. No, I haven't quit my job (yet). No, I don't have a tattoo (yet). But still, lots of change.

Nothing that major. Just a new project for after Christmas that dropped in my lap pretty much fully formed and ready to go. And a conference that I really wanted to go to, then decided not to go to, and now I might be going to. And a small group that appears to have thrown human logic out the window to follow God.

Have I mentioned that I don't like change? And how much I like routine? And that I like things to be planned well in advance?? Have I mentioned how much more my Mother likes all these things and that all of this will require me uttering the words "there's been a change of plans"?? 'Cuz we all know Santa doesn't come to girls who change the plan.

I'm being sarcastic (hopefully that was obvious). I'm just feeling a little whiplashed as things in my small group change quickly (for the better), friendships change quickly (for the better) and suddenly I'm getting messages from God that have exclamation points at the end of them.

It's certainly a wild and unpredictable ride. Good thing I've recently been reading about Abraham. Makes my ride look a little crazy.