Ash & Evergreens

Have you ever started a spiritual discipline and it didn't quite go as planned? This winter, I was in a spiritual formation class that included practicing spiritual disciplines. We had to intentionally give up something for 21 days and complete two 2-hour solitude retreats. I chose to give up social media for 21 days and then ended up doing my solitude retreats at a cabin in one day. I initially set myself up on the lazy boy, turned the fire on, opened my Bible, and... crashed! I napped so hard for like 1.5 hours, had dream-inception, and woke up not knowing what time or day it was. Is napping a spiritual discipline? Because if so, I crushed it. I took my plan to rest and ran with it. But once I woke up, it was time to actually do what I went to do. Much like disciplining ourselves to not eat ice cream every night, not order queso at a Mexican restaurant, or get to the gym regularly, spiritual disciplines are also challenging. You see, Spiritual Disciplines by definition are practi...

Silence filled the room as people were asked to share about their late relative. His death was sudden and dumbfounding. The family gathered to pay their respects, but there was no visitation, no funeral, just a time for family and close friends to gather together in commemoration.  "Who wants to say some words?" someone asked.  But it was quiet. The gathered did not know what to express because the person the words were intended for didn't exactly have a glowing resume. People were not crying and exuberantly trying to talk over one another because there was so much depth, goodness, impact, and memories to share. Eyes peered around the room at each other, darting away when gaze was met. Were they to feel shame that there was nothing much to share? Being together, mourning a loss, and prayer was enough to fill the space, but how sad that it was nothing more? When I was in the 8th grade, I had a friend/teammate pass away unexpectedly (she was 12, I was 14). That rocked my wo...