I love Lent. Just wrote about it on the alter-ego blog site. I've been thinking a while now about trying to journal more -- write SOMETHING personal daily, coming out of a place of faith, be it reading, praying, singing, etc. So I shall try. Maybe if it is good, I'll share it here. We shall see...

Fave things about Lent:

1) Spring goes hand in hand.
2) Old school soup suppers. I wish we could bring those back. I love soup.
3) Easter waits at the end. Easter rules.
4) the music is minor keyed and kinda gloomy. Kinda nice sometimes.


That's all for now...

Stuff...

Home is where...

my own bed resides.
there are not 20 other dudes using the bathroom.
i re-engage my frontal lobes and stop acting like a junior high boy. sort of.
i am most at peace.
i am loved like crazy.
there is beer in the fridge that does not drain money from my wallet.
the dishes in the sink are mine, not some other highly paid religious professional's who does not do his own dishes.
i get to not be the smallest guy in the room.
i miss my friends in the J terribly.
where i am happiest and most content.
the place where i am most wanted,
the place where all that i am comes from. (thanks, chris and johnny!)

where i want to be more than anywhere right this moment.

This week is showing me (reinforcing, maybe?) the 'so what' nature of how I think w/ regards to ministry and scripture and whathaveyou. I wish I could engage this discussion right now at 2:43 p.m. on Thursday simply for the hypothetical; I'm sure that if I were to really dive in and grasp what's being said, there are some crazy good things to be had, but I am failing to see the big picture, 'so what?' point for today. Maybe that's an area of tweaking my faith needs -- to engage and read and enjoy simply for that process, rather than looking for a 'what do I do with this?' thing; a fortune cookie as Dr. Ferris calls them...I must say, I'm shockingly overwhelmed by my complete lack of historical Biblical knowledge. I need the "OT for Dummies"...yikes.

On a side note, I miss my family tremendously! More than I can express...excited to come home w/ Uncle Ray this weekend!

More later?

Luther, night 2.

I slept pretty well -- checked the alarm a few times, got up and lifted early, and am really pretty wiped tonight. Hope to sleep well, get up, and run in the morning (outside? Maybe not. It is foolish cold here.) Treadmill, here I come. Ugh.

Had a really thought provoking day. One thing to share...we talked about the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, and the slaughtering of the sheep and rams and how messy that process was. Yuck, right? How lucky are we that we don't have to get elbow deep in blood and gore to make our sins right. But...when you get down to it, and really start to let the Jesus impact you and buy into the deal, it IS yucky. It starts to impact how you view the world around you. It changes your perspective, and the depth of understanding with regard to what He did and WHY is a lot like being elbow deep in the gore. Maybe it isn't as easy as we sometimes make it out to be.

I am so blessed to be on this journey -- thanks, Kari, for helping me realize this. I hope it is worth it.

Man, I'm tired. 4 hours is not a bad drive, but on top of a few later nights in a row and a tough(er) parenting weekend, I'm whipped. I have a hard time going right to bed, though. I need to read and relax and slow down...hard to do up here. But I'll give it a shot! Missing my kids and wife; this is always so hard, but part of a very necessary process for them and me. So, we'll soldier on!

More tomorrow...