Spiritual Formation

You’re feeling the March madness. No, not the madness of the upsets or the buzzer-beating shots.

Mombinou Dorichamou is Assistant to the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) Regional Secretary for Francophone Africa and lives in Benin. Recently he discovered a book on meditative prayer.

March is my favorite month to be a college sports fan. The college campus is my place of work and ministry. I love college students.

Their droopy eyes told me we were in for a long and listless afternoon. I was studying the Gospel of Mark with a group of fifteen college students at Campus by the Sea.

Today, International Women’s Day, many women will receive flowers or small gifts from husbands, children, or colleagues.

A woman I know has a habit of naming her years. Come January 1, she’ll choose a word for the year ahead—something she’d like to be true of the coming months, such as community or adventure or love. If I were to go back and name the past ten years of my life, most of them would share the same few words: Judgment. Guilt. Fear.

Ash Wednesday is the most honest day of the year. Honesty is what kick-starts the cycle of grace. When the process is working well, it’s almost instantaneous.

As we mentioned last week, Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 13, the day after Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday!). All around the world, millions of Christians will participate in a church service or liturgy that somberly underscores our mortality as creatures and our sinfulness as human beings. 

We are about to go to our friends’ house to watch the Super Bowl. There are a few things I want to tell you.

“What are you reading?” the boy asked, pointing at the pictures in my book. My graphic novel wasn’t toddler appropriate, so I replied, “It’s about superheroes!” “Wow,” he whispered, reverently. His mother, sitting next to him on the train, gently prodded, “You like superheroes!” He nodded vigorously.