What I've Learned

So here we are at the end of Lent.

And my task for the day is to tell you what I've learned. I think that will be hard.

The Sunday before Ash Wednesday, our church passed out a small calendar. Across the top were the words, "God's Love Doesn't Just Add Up, It Multiplies."

With each Bible passage, there is an action, whether it is praying or donating or researching something.

So here is what I have learned:
That to "go and do likewise" does not always have to be with my hands, but also with my heart and my prayers. My prayers are just as important as my hands.

I can't save the world. It is God and God only who can change it. I am only a small part and, as the Sara Groves says, You are the sun and I am the moon and I am only a reflection.

________________________________________________________________________

So now, as I enter into Maundy Thursday, I want to savor it all. Both the sorrow at the death of Christ, but the joy in the resurrection. We cannot accept the glory without the tears. We cannot embrace the joy without the pain. That is what Easter is really about - the sorrow of our sins that put Christ on the cross as well as the joy of the Resurrection and our salvation.

Day 2: Ash Wednesday

...for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." - Genesis 3:19

I was at first hesitant to add a cross to my rice for today (Lawry's salt, if you were wondering), but I have one on my forehead, I can have one on my rice.

Ash Wednesday marks the start of a journey for me, every year.  Most years I give up things.  I guess I have this year, but I feel like I'm gaining more.  And I feel like this rice month is a journey for me.  I'm learning so much about hunger and poverty.

I think I'm going to share with you both my rice and what I'm learning.  Let's all learn together!  I will say: Lawry's seasoning salt is a great addition to my rice.

Here's what I learned today:
On March 6th, 60 Minutes profiled child poverty in Florida.  In one of the segments, a small group of children in Florida talk about how they often go to bed hungry and how they feel that it's their fault, that their families would be better off if they didn't have to pay for them.

These are the faces of the statistics from yesterday.

Hard Times Generation: Homeless Kids
For some children, socializing and learning are being cruelly complicated by homelessness, as Scott Pelley reports from Florida, where school buses now stop at motels for children who've lost their homes.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7358670n&tag=contentMain%3BcbsCarousel#ixzz1G7T6PLUX