Lent: Prayerful and Intentional

It occurs in the grocery aisle where I stand too long looking at the labels and prices of different brands of bran flakes.  

It occurs as I stand in my front lawn surveying the weeds that I seem particularly good at growing instead of grass.  

It occurs in social setting scanning the others to see if my clothes, car, and phone measure up.  

It even occurs at church committee tables where we find ourselves talking about that other church where people are flocking and we want to know, what is the secret?  

We swim in a cultural sea where comparing has become our national past time.  

Maybe it is just me, but I go throughout the day creating these mental charts.  

Did people laugh more at this week’s sermon or last week’s?  

Was I too grumpy, happy, sleepy at that meeting and am I really comparing myself to the seven dwarfs?  

I even do this with morning prayer, was my time with God better or worse than yesterday?  

It can feel like I am at the eye doctor being constantly asked which is better, "Lens one or two?" 

And I really can’t tell the difference.  

We pray this week for God to clear away the clutter that can cloud our vision.
We pray this week for grace and wisdom to know the difference between God's will, my will, cultural will...not that there is always one right answer...but prayer listens for God as we honestly wade through life.
We pray this week for God to continue to enter in and be in our midst as Lent begins to move toward Holy Week.