Random Thoughts

• You know you live in Nebraska when the forecast calls for the following: Thursday: mostly sunny, high of 50. Friday: chance of showers, high of 45. Saturday: 90% chance of thunderstorms, some may be severe, high of 46. Sunday: 4 to 6 freakin' inches of snow! I mean, come on, people! From sunny and gorgeous to spring-like severe weather to maybe 6 inches of snow?!?!?!?! I give up. Mother Nature, you win.

• Last night, Kiddo was sitting with Sweetie at church for the Ash Wednesday service (I was performing my organ-ly duties in the balcony). The imposition of ashes came before the sermon--during the sermon, I came down to join them. Kiddo leaned over, pointed to his forehead, and loudly whispered, "Look, Daddy! I got that stuff on my head!"

• Speaking of Ash Wednesday, I posted the other day about Lent, and said I'd be giving up meaningless ritual. As LutherLiz astutely pointed out, that's a difficult thing to measure, and while renewing my own worship and prayer practices are a definite discipline that I intend to continue well past Lent, I wanted to have something more tangible. Something that I could do (or not do) intentionally, and while I'm doing (or not doing) it be reminded of the reason. As I've done in Lenten seasons past, I'll be reading the book A Skeleton in God's Closet to remind me of my dependence on Christ's death and resurrection. Then it hit me last night as I was getting things set up for church.

I'm gonna write a liturgy.

I don't plan on putting an Easter "due date" on its completion, especially as I've never done this before and would rather do it right than in some set time frame...but this will be something constructive (I hope!) that allows me to use my abilities while at the same time keeping my focus on the cross. And it will tie in quite nicely with my desire to eliminate meaningless ritual.

As with the other stuff I've been posting about, I'll keep you updated. (And don't worry, Marty Haugen, Susan Briehl, David Cherwien and others I'm sure will continue to be able to sleep quite soundly, still safe in their composing prominence.) =)

• As part of the Ash Wednesday service last night, we all received little wooden crosses with lanyards that we're supposed to carry in our pocket or wear during Lent. Kiddo got one too, and without any prompting from Daddy insisted that he was going to wear his around his neck to daycare today. I just got back from taking him over (it's great having a licensed in-home daycare just 2 doors down from your house!), and he walked inside and immediately started showing the other kids his cross. I heard him saying "this is so I remember that Jesus loves me. He loves my Mommy and Daddy too, that's why they have crosses too!"

If only we all could be such bold evangelists...

LH