Lent Day 1 Ash Wednesday Discernment

Lent has officially begun and I am still discerning the exact “how” of the discipline(s) I’m embracing. I’m pretty clear on the “what.” It is the need for submission and trust. That is becoming more and more clear. God is offering me opportunities to reflect on that as God is wont to do when I open myself to such things. The fragilty of life and just how little we really are in control as brought home by some unexpected deaths recently in our community, and some of the thoughts brought up as I wrote my reflection for the feminist theology blog Feminist Theology in an Age of Fear and Hope initiated by Mompriest, have given me yet another chance to stop and remember why it is that radical trust in God is really the only thing that makes sense, and that somehow this whole idea of submission is how that gets actualized. I just have to meditate a bit on the actualizing in my real world.

One thing I do know is that I will post daily. I will be looking for Godsigns in my world. How is God manifest and perhaps something about how I am doing in manifesting God as well. As for the rest, well I think that might be a work in progress. And that might be a lived discipline in itself for this person whose will it is to have things figured out. That “letting it be” might be part of exercising the radical trust. The other thing I know is that I will be doing this with an intentional community of people who will come together once a week to check-in and pray together about our Lenten spiritual practices. That feels good…to be for each other the stair-rail that Joan Chittister talks about, to keep ourselves from falling and getting hurt as we practice our disciplines.