Jumping the Gun

Yesterday was the 27th so I was all primed for my fantasy baseball draft.  I'd done my research and knew who I wanted on my team (whether I'd get them was another issue).  I've been playing in the same league with the same guys for a decade now and draft night is always a lot of fun.  We'll chat online, call one another, catch up, razz each other.  So I settled in at my desk in the parsonage, put out my materials, and logged onto the site.  I was surprised when the countdown clock suggested I had 28 days and so many minutes and seconds to go until the draft.

Then I realized the draft was on March 27, not February 27.

Oops.  I was so eager to move into this traditional spring/summer/fall pastime that I'd jumped the gun.

Jumping the gun is something we can do during Lent, too.  We can be so eager to get to Easter, with its message of new life, that the urge to skip past Lent with all it calls us to do can be irresistible.  But resist we should.  For it is during these long weeks, which begin in winter, stretch through mud season, and culminate in spring, that we are blessed to walk with God in honest, faithful, sometimes difficult reflection.  And since this isn't easy, we can give thanks for these forty days and forty nights, which give us time to ease into Lent, to be present, to catch our breath, to take a break when necessary, and to engage fully with the One who comes to us bringing restoration, reconciliation, and resurrection.

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