Lenten Words

Any new insights or ideas into these words...

13.  Grace
14.  Faith
15.  Crawl
16.  Walk
17.  Run
18.  Purple
19.  Party

When was the last time grace knocked on your door, showed up in your life, and pulled up a chair to sit for a spell?

Where is faith stretching and growing...evolving and exploring right now?  For me, one place where faith is seeking new growth is as we approach Holy Week.  The services of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter...are familiar that trying to find a fresh breeze blowing through these days is a prayer practice. 

Or where is the color purple popping up?  Do you see it in flowers or in your closet?  What might does the color purple signify for you?  Maybe creativity as in the great children's book, "Harold and the purple crayon".  Maybe today you can find a purple crayon and try to create something...or write a prayer...or just let the color run/race/walk/crawl across the page.

Or where is there a party in your life?  As we keep holding these words we name and notice that party can be something amazing ~ a celebration of an anniversary or birthday or just because you happen to be alive on this Wednesday.  But party can sometimes feel like a forced obligation or I sometimes decide to throw myself a, "pity party...table for one please." 

Do you see any connection between these seven words?

I think of Alice Walker telling us to slow down to a crawl and notice the color purple. 
I think of moments when grace causes my heart to race with indescribable joy...or faith moment when goose bump run up and down my arms.
I think of slowly walking with my wife and dog around our neighborhood, a holy moment of grace as the wind whips around us and the sun warms our skin. 

I pray that initial list might awaken within you moments right now were these words are helping you give voice to the places and spaces where grace, faith, crawling, walking, running, purple and party are more than just a random laundry list and might open you to more than a trace of God's grace.

Blessings ~~