Lenten Reduction

I highly recommend Lenten Reduction from the blog Don't Eat Alone (with props to Real Live Preacher for highlighting it). There are some very real, very deep truths here.

No matter how many times I make demi-glace, it’s always time to do it again.

No matter how many meals I make, there will always be another ticket.

No matter how many times I hear I’m created in God’s image (even if I’m a firefly in the universe), I will always need someone to tell me again.

This reminds me of a line I read in one of Madeleine L'engle's journals, which wasn't original to her, but was quoted from somewhere else. Basically, the line went, "The problem with life is that it's just so damn daily." This is the problem, but it's also the joy... and the source of the Benedictine motto ora et labora. Work can be prayerful, and work can be prayer. Life can be prayerful, and life can be prayer. It is our choice.

And I'll tell you, we don't make that choice once and for all, either. We make it in every moment of every day. Today, it is a joy for me to make dinner for my family; yesterday, it was miserable drudgery. Today, it is a joy for me to take phone calls from coworkers who have questions for me; tomorrow, I may resent them. But no matter how many times I make dinner for my family, I have to wake up in the morning and do it again. And no matter how many questions I get from a coworker, there's always one more.

And no matter how many times I hear that I am loved and valued and precious, I will always need to hear it again. And to say it again, too. Dear one, you are a beloved and precious child of God. Come back tomorrow and read it again. Because you are.