A Concord Pastor Comments: Praying 10 Minutes a Day: "Ash Friday"

This is the third day of Lent... how's it going?

Or did you miss Ash Wednesday altogether and just stumble into Lent yesterday or today? (If so, welcome aboard!)

Has the fervor of Ash Wednesday worn off or has it deepened?

Have you got a plan for living Lent - or have you been just too busy to even think about it?

Are you wondering if you've missed the boat, that it sailed without you?

Do you worry that something like Lent must be for other folks and that for some reason, you just don't know how to "do Lent?"

All of life is like that, isn't it?

I have false and late starts... I sometimes miss what everyone else seems to be aware of... I lose track of even the most important things I want to do... I get distracted and even lost and wonder if it's too late to start again... I worry that my own timeline isn't in sync with God's... I fear that I'm not doing things the way they're supposed to be done... I wonder if I'll ever figure out how Lent is supposed to work for me...

Life and Lent can be very much alike and that's because the same person who's living my life is the person who's trying to live Lent.

I don't become a better person just because it's Lent: I pray that because of Lent, I might become a better person. And the only way for that to happen is for me to acknowledge what's impossible for me to do alone and what I really need God's help for if I'm going to change and grow.

Lent, like life, is best lived one a day at a time. My Lenten plans will help me grow if they're plans I can live with, modest plans that will help me, a day at a time, to be faithful to the presence of God in my life.

That's why I've invited you to consider committing to praying for just 10 minutes a day. That's a modest goal but not necessarily an easy goal. We have so many reasons to keep putting off those 10 minutes until our heads are nodding and we're ready to fall asleep at day's end.

Keep it simple! Keeping things simple so often helps keep me on the right path...

Lent is a lot like life, isn't it?

Be still... and know that God is with you..

The Serenity Prayer seems a good one for this day's 10 minutes. Here's a longer version, usually attributed to Rienhold Niebuhr:

God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,