By and for expatriates, recovering _______ (insert your church/faith upbringing here), and/or hopeful sojourners.
Ten steps to begin Lent:
1. Mark or be marked with ashes (likely virtual or self-applied this year). Dirt or grease also work.
2. Accept that it can seem a bit silly or weird (EVERY faith AND secular tradition has its nearly inexplicably weird rituals).
3. Explore what this whole ashes thing means. Google thinks it knows.
4. Recognize that there are myriad interpretations of ashes on the forehead. Question obvious and trite meanings.
5. Refuse to accept others’ interpretations for yourself. What’s it mean for you?
6. Dare to let this ash marking, understood or not, begin a 40-day journey of life and faith discovery—with or without a fast/denial.
7. Consider some kind of fast or denial for 40 days—but don’t make it superficial. Consider, instead, a positive action (a fast from complacency, inaction, sidelining).
8. Ask yourself: what might this mean for me, for the community, for the world—here and now?
9. Practice something each day for 40 days: A walk, a run, a meditation time, an act of service or compassion, a conversation, a group meeting, an art project, a virtual heart-expanding encounter, etc., that requires a bit of discipline. If you start late, just start and try to finish.
10. Track via journaling, art making, contemplation, conversation, etc. what you experience. Listen to your life. Note the journey.
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