Spiritual Formation

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.

I was feeling a little stuck. You’ve been a Christian your whole life, I told myself in a mini pep talk. You should know how to have a meaningful quiet time, a deep prayer life, a correct perception of God. But the truth was, the practices that had been helpful in the past no longer were.

You can hear from God. I bet no one’s ever sat you down and explicitly (and bravely) said that out loud, to your face, because no one wants to look bad if you take a risk to listen for God’s voice and then don’t hear anything. 

Why is this day different from other days? Why is it that on all other days I set an alarm, but on this day I sleep in and take an afternoon nap?

“Practicing spiritual disciplines is life altering,” said Stephen Smith, InterVarsity alumnus and InterVarsity Press author.