Yaaaaay Lent!

Tomorrow begins Lent, perhaps my favorite of the Christian traditions. Odd, right? But Lent has always felt to me like the best expression of my actual life and faith: I'm desperately hoping God will show up, make a difference, help in the places I can't do any better (and even more in the things I don't even know are heading my way)...and I have this promise that He's coming, so I want to be prepared...but of course I have no idea what that means.

Lent gives structure to my desperation. I can give something up, and honestly pray each time I miss it, "Jesus, I want your best for my life more than I want..." (coffee/sugar/television/reading/swear words/meat/or any of the other things I've abstained from in past years. Surprisingly, reading was the hardest - you look like an idiot at the hairdresser when you just sit there with foils all over your head, ignoring the stack of magazines and staring into space!)

We're just a few hours away from the start of Lent and I'm not sure what I'll give up this year. I love my friend & fellow Changing Seasons blogger Elizabeth's idea of approaching Lent as a season of cultivation, and I'm praying for God to breathe life into what that should look like for me (and for said inspiration to take place before I go to bed tonight, so I wake up tomorrow with some sense of a plan!) Usually, God speaks clearly to me about things like this, so I'm expectant. And hoping that through this season He will increase my certainty about the ways He's at work in other areas of life where I'm not in on the details.

May your season of Lent be filled with holy longing and great expectations for God to exceed.