Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

              Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. The forty days of Lent (not counting Sundays) are meant to be a time of spiritual reflection and growth, a time to draw closer to God and closer to the life of discipleship in God’s kingdom which Jesus came to usher in. The traditional practices of Lent include fasting (giving something up), almsgiving (generosity and charity), and prayer.

              Phew! Seems like a lot. Who’s got the time for all that?

              We have jobs, and chores, and maybe even two jobs. We have kids and grandkids (and maybe great-grandkids) with activities to watch. We have to-do lists a mile long and don’t even get me started on how many emails are awaiting a response (or more likely a delete).

              So, we squeeze in a moment or two of prayer as we drink our morning coffee, at least for the first week. Oh, wait, weren’t you giving up coffee for Lent? So that won’t work. You can always pay for the next person in line at the coffee shop as an act of charity. Oh, wait, that coffee thing again. Dang. This IS hard.

              With apologies to Mick and the Rolling Stones, I don’t think time IS on our side.

              Did I mention tomorrow is Ash Wednesday? I did. See, that’s the day we go forward to have ashes smeared on our head in the shape of a cross while the minister says, “From dust you came and to dust you shall return,” or something like that. The season of Lent begins with a reminder of our mortality, a reminder that life is a temporary condition, something we don’t like to think about. Ash Wednesday reminds us that our time is limited.

              So, what do you want to do with the time you have? Do you want to just keep running on the hamster wheel of life, darting from this activity to the next, never catching your breath, never getting caught up, always wishing there was “more time”?

              Or do you want to slow down enough to experience something holy and sacred in the world? Do you want to know joy and wonder rather than exhaustion and angst? Do you want to discover the joy of eternal life, what Jesus called ‘abundant life,’ in every moment of the present? Lent is a good time to think to about time and how we want to live it.

              Maybe we CAN squeeze in a little prayer over a morning cup of tea and give ourselves more fully to those people and those things we love most, even if just for next forty days. If we do, come Easter morning maybe WE will feel like we have emerged from a tomb and entered into God’s new, resurrection life.