From the Pastor Lent 2012, “At the hearts of the Christian faith is our participation in the life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ as Lord.” Lent also involves using spiritual disciplines (John Wesley uses the phrase “means of grace”) to draw us closer to God. Spiritual disciplines are things we choose to do that will help us to take the focus off of “what can I do to please myself or what makes me feel good” to “what can I do that will help me grow in my Christian faith?”

From the Pastor My friend and colleague Nancy Modin has shared this with her church, One Thousand Gifts in This is a book by Ann Voskamp about finding everyday, amazing grace in the midst of deadlines, debt, drama, and daily duties. She offers a practical, radical answer: “By giving thanks for the life you already have, to find the life you’ve always wanted. Capture your gifts. Count your blessings. Share your joy as it happens.” This is the joy dare she offers:

From the Pastor During the 6 weeks of Lent, record at least 3 gifts (graces) a day. These are gifts from God that we receive every day. We just have to open our hearts and our minds to know that they are from God. Following are some ideas that you might want to use to get going. One Thousand Gifts in things about yourself you are grateful for. 2. A gift, outside, inside, on a plate lines you overheard that were graces.

From the Pastor 4. One gift old, new, and blue. 5. Something you are reading, you are making, you are seeing. 6. One thing in your bag, your refrigerator, your heart graces from people you love. 8. Light that caught you, a reflection that surprised you, a shadow that fell lovely. 9. A gift in your hand, a gift you walked by, a gift you sat with.

From the Pastor 10. A gift that is sour, a gift that is sweet, a gift that is just right! yellow things that strike you as fresh mercy. 12. Something above you, something below you, something beside you sounds you hear ways you glimpsed the startling grace of God. 15. One thing you wore, one thing you gave away, one thing you shared.

From the Pastor ways you witnessed happiness today. 17. One gift that made you laugh, one gift that made you pray, one gift that made you quiet gifts from God’s Word. 19. A grace in the kitchen, a grace in the weather, a grace that might never have been gifts you saw only when you got close-up. 21. One thing in the sky, one thing from your memory, one thing that’s ugly-beautiful.

From the Pastor 22. One grace wrinkled, one grace smoothed, one grace unfolded gifts found in Jesus things blue. 25. One grace borrowed, one grace found, one grace inherited. 26. A gift before 9 A.M., a gift before noon, a gift after dark gifts that might never have been graces found in your friends.

From the Pastor 29. A song heard, a soft word, where you saw light old things seen new. 31. A gift found on a paper, in a person, in a picture. As you see, there are gifts and graces for each day in March. May you discover God in a new way as you observe Lent this year. Pastor Nancy