Failure is one of the words in my lapsed Lenten discipline. It is also I. There are currently 22 words I have not addressed. I’ve read them, daily, as they are sitting on my desk in plain view. I meditate on them and think about memories or thoughts each one evokes. Some, like number two, Something Purple, washes over me like a waterfall – Lent colors, my chasuble, my favorite jumper, a cherished silk blouse long gone, royalty, a rainbow ribbon. Failure. Me. While I can ponder those words, something deep within my soul keeps me from attacking my keyboard each day and jotting down a few words about a word. I wonder if Jesus ever got up in the morning and said, “I’d love to go talk to a few people on the corner about love, but man I’m really just not that into it today.” Maybe one day Mary said about 11 am, “I just don’t have the energy to bake any bread today. We’ll just have some wine with our stew and be done with it.” I know that Moses didn’t feel much like doing a face-to-face with Pharoah.
So, I accept that I am a Lenten Discipline Failure. But, maybe only halfway. I mean, after all, I DO read them. Daily. I DO ponder them, daily. I just don’t write about them daily. Probably never will. I’m sorry Jesus, and thanks for forgiving me.
Here then are those 22 words, plus the last 4 for you to ponder:
- Loss
- Something purple
- Success
- Bread & Wine
- Fasting
- Fire
- A Verse
- Heart
- Bible
- Joy
- A stranger
- Ruin
- Healing
- An idea
- Journey
- Water
- Failure
- Longing
- Community
- A book
- An old treasure
- Darkness
- Cold
- Remoteness
- Favorite prayer
- Jesus.