The Dog Days of Lent

Lenten Reflection Day 26

We are far enough into lent now that most people I talk to are very tired of Lent. They are tired of all the confession and discipline. They are ready for the joy of Easter. I am definately feeling the Lenten burn. Today I have been mulching. I mean really mulching. I had over a 1000 sq feet of grown covering mulch delivered today. Dealing with this pile of mulch will be one of those projects whose completion is wholly dependent on persistent, seemingly endless hard work. This pile feels like Lent. 40 days doesn't sound like a long time when you think about giving something up for Lent. 40 days doesn't seem like it is too long to try and focus on God in a different. It doesn't seem long until about now. By now your disciplines of fasting may be slipping. By now your joy for confession and reflection may be exhausted. You are probably feeling tired, unsure of your discipline and not sure if there is really a point to all of this. But now, during this time when all you can do is put your back into and bear down at the task at hand, now is the time God begins to take over. Now you begin to feel the rhythm of His discipline. Now you begin to catch your wind, you begin to feel reenergized and realize the benefit from this time. Over the next several days that feeling may begin to grow until your joy returns and grows far stronger than before. So if you too are in the doy days of Lent, just keep shoveling the mulch. Before you know it, the pile will be gone, and Easter will be upon you.