Lent Light

Ash Wednesday was of course this week, signaling the start of the Lenten season,...the longest fasting/preparation season of the Christian church year. I always feel a stronger connection to the season when I have followed the entire journey from Ash Wednesday through Good Friday to the whole Easter celebration. To accomplish this, I had to play a bit of planes, trains and automobiles to get from work in LA to church in Mission Viejo Wednesday night, but it was a journey that was well worth it.

Craig challenged us all to have a GREAT Lent through peace, holiness, grace and love. That is no small task, but the good news is that we have 46 days to work through it. The timing generated quite a conversation between Ebe and I later that evening...what is the deal with Sundays? DO they count in the discipline of "giving up", or are they considered "mini Easters" and allow us to step away from whatever discipline of taking on or giving up that we have assumed for this timing?

It was great debate without resolution, other than the declaration that going back on the discipline every week felt a little bit like we were trying to live Lent LIGHT...all the intentions of the regular Lenten season without as much of the pain and difficulty of adhering to it the entire time.

Looks like we've got a long way to go to really declaring ourselves filled with the GREATNESS of Lent!

Review Time - Significant or Successful?

It's review time at the swirly place, and as I went through the process of both my self and then supervisor review, I started to think about the discipline of assessing what we do each year, which then made me think about the whole significant vs. successful posting that I did last month.

As far as reviews go, things are fine, what's not to love? Actually, I will admit that by taking the whole successful filter off and putting on the significant lens instead, I got some great perspective around what I do, how I do it and most importantly, how I can do it better at work AND in life.

Character Counts is a phrase that my friend Eric used with me when we were talking about how we strive to be significant and that really resonated...character IS significant and is something that can't be manipulated to make someone seem successful.

These little reflections and reviews are a good thing, I wonder if I should have David & Schnoogs fill out a performance evaluation on me!

Hope

Hope has long been a part of my vernacular, but in the past 4 months, it has become at nearly the center of most things. I am working on an upcoming Walk to Emmaus with the word HOPE serving as an integral part of the message.

As I interact with more and more people around the word HOPE, I realize that it is truly an important word and attitude in our society, as it resonates for many on a variety of different levels. I have started paying attention to how often I hear the word, how people use it and how people respond to it. It is interesting (in my humble opinion) to see how some people react to the word; in some cases it is almost negative, as it seems to imply for some that there is not a lot of oomph in terms of action behind the belief.

There are a couple of people that I interact with at work that have an almost adverse reaction when the word HOPE is used. I like to watch the reaction when this happens, because it gives me some insight to what makes different people tick and how they handle adversity or anything outside of the "normal" range of expectations. For the most part, the anti-hope people are pretty clinical, live a little more in the black and white and are easy to slide over to the negative side of things. The HOPE peeps tend to be more in the cup is half full camp and can see through adversity with more options or alternatives.

I have not devoted any period of time to really analyzing this and all of my observations are anecdotal, but there does seem common threads in the HOPE vs. no HOPE individuals.

I hope that we can all get to a place where we believe that there is always a positive outcome!

One Book, One Life

Last night, I went to a benefit show for a program called One Book, One Life. In addition to being a great show with 3 different bands, starting from the Youth band to our worship music director all the way to "Steve" and his daughter (I am sure that his band had a name, but I didn't catch it and everyone kept referring to how much they liked "Steve", so that is the extent of my education on who was playing). The point is that we had some great entertainment and spent a couple of hours with some great music - both familiar standbys and some new, original material.

Impressive to me is the formation of this organization - these are all what I would call kids (between 20 and 23 or so) who had a vision for making a difference in our world and took that vision to action. Most adults struggle to do something like this, making this even more special.

Each one of the 4 officers in the organization got up in front of the audience near the end of the concert and gave thanks and praise for the work that has been done so far, and it is clear that much more work will be done this year and moving forward.

I love to see how amazing things can happen with the right attitude and mindset.

Significant

Thank you to my fine friend Ebe for gently reminding me that one blog posting does not effectively support a return from hiatus! It was after this not-so-subtle reminder that I learned that I fell asleep at the switch because we both had a posting idea about church last week and because I have not been disciplined about blogging...she has beat me to the punch!

Not to worry. There is a lot of good stuff between the two of us and after I finish typing this, I am going to go read hers, just to compare our interpretation and take-away. This is the beauty of independent thinking, we all have our opinions and beliefs, few of which match exactly and all contribute to the rich tapestry of our lives.

With that fine preamble, let's talk about being significant. Craig challenged us on January 2nd to make a difference in the Kingdom of God. Not in 7 decades, 7 years or even 7 weeks but in 7 days, as in this week. A daunting task, but as I listened to his message and thought about how we put so much emphasis in being successful vs. significant, I really felt as if all at once I had a crystal clear picture of what I need to think about each and every day when I get up in the morning (or the middle of the night, depending upon what 4 am feels like to you).

It is really quite liberating, really. Successful is trying to live or measure up to someone else's expectations. Significant is using your gifts and talents to make a difference in the world. Some people get the flashy tasks, but for the large majority of us, significance is found throughout the ins and outs of daily life...being fully present and fully engaged.

I like this living significantly approach; let's watch the difference unfold in the world around!