Friday Five: First Friday of Lent

1. Did you celebrate Mardi Gras and/or Ash Wednesday this week? How?
We did a pseudo-Fat Tuesday this week: ate good, thick crust, Chicago-style pizza with lotsa meat & a few veggies, and watched a movie. Not that we're giving up movies for Lent - it just seemed like something fun to do.

2. What was your most memorable Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday/Lent?
I remember one Lent where a girl with whom I was head over heels in love ended the relationship. Turns out I was a "not so sure about the guy I want to marry, so I'm going to explore a bit" guy - and I do say that with kindness intended. Years later, of course: at the time I was devastated. Anyhoo, Lent was definitely a walk in the wilderness that year: as one of my friends put it, I was a "mucking fess."

3. Did you/your church/your family celebrate Lent as a child? If not, when and how did you discover it?
We went to midweek services, and the ones I remember most were when Pastor Marek was our pastor, because we did a Service of the Word from our hymnal, and we sang canticles, which we'd never done before. I can still sing them in my head: "We believe / that Jesus Christ / has died for us, and has risen from the dead. / He is our saving Lord / He is joy for all nations."

4. Are you more in the give-up camp, or the take-on camp, or somewhere in between?
I'm in the Both-And camp this year. Giving up red meat and other kinds of meat when possible (can't go WITHOUT meat if I want to share meals with my pregnant spouse), no alcohol or ice cream, and more exercise. Mostly, I'm trying to follow the advice of Michael Pollan: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

5. How do you plan to keep Lent this year?
With joy. I'm reading Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and he and others insist that disciplines are to be undertaken with joy, not sorrow, for in learning to hold the world lightly we learn to cling all the more to Christ, "like water to a pitcher," as Martin Luther once said. I'll be glad when I can lift a beer again, but I'm also excited to think about the health benefits and, most importantly, the way my own walk with God may change this year.