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Saturday, March 8, 2014

Day Four of Lent

In my attempts to better understand the Catholic faith and my own journey converting, I'll be spending this Lent doing a daily reflection of things I've learned. The faith encourages reflections on subjects like this (even the Pope reflects!) so I figure I'll reflect through writing. As always, my understanding of this is noobish so forgive any wrong conclusions and do feel free to correct me where needed. Here we go.



"From that time on" is a phrase that was the focus of today's reflection in the blackbook (sounds ominous, doesn't it?). In the book, the author pointed out how that phrase marked a turning point in the Bible, usually one that was very important. As the author puts it, "From that time on" is a phrase that serves as a milepost in one's life.


It's a marker, one that serves as a distinction.


"Years from now, looking back to Lent 2014, how would I like to be able to finish that sentence: "From that time on..."?"


It was a pointed question and a good one. There are definite mileposts in my life, especially over the last three years. A lot has changed for me; I've gone from college to the working world, gone from fat to thin, gone from Alabama to Virginia to Ohio and gone from Baptist to converting Catholic. And that's only the ones I can think of off the top of my head.


Looking back on Lent 2014, I'd like to remember it as my first foray into the Catholic way of living, the deep end of it. Lent has some rules to it that, so far, I've been good about following. I wish to continue to do that as we go along. Will it be easy? No. Will it be worth it? I think so, but that's only my prediction.


I want to be able to say that Lent 2014 marked a beginning for me ... I mean, I was a lector on Ash Wednesday and got ashes put on my forehead! I was excited about it (and still am to a point) and I don't want to ever take that for granted. Catholicism is deep and it's rich. It's also sometimes very confusing and all the history is overwhelming some days.


I hope, as I go along, that I'll be able to absorb some of this and carve out my role. I'm getting there, slowly. As I was discussing with a co-worker today, God is loving. God is good. Even when bad things happen to us, he's still there and he's got a plan.


This Lent, I'd like to be able to say, years from now, that I was able to begin to trust God more, to have more faith. I struggle some days; probably half the week I'd guess. I'd like to not struggle so often but it's hard.


But the hard things in life? Those are the ones worth doing.



Thanks for reading, folks. God Bless.

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