Mining our hearts

It is tempting to grab an idea from the Internet on how to live a Holy Lent. I catch myself saying What a good idea. I'll do that!

So many good ideas 

On how to live

A Holy Lent;

So many good ideas

Yet the best one

For me

For you

Must be mined

From the heart.

So tempting

To refrain from meat

When one is already

A vegetarian;

So tempting

To give up chocolate

When one does not have

A sweet tooth;

So tempting

To proclaim to the world

Our holiness

When really

We have barely begun

To walk that path.

We have each

Barely begun.                                

So many good ideas

Yet we must each

Mine our own hearts.

Limits...

This is kind of, sort of, a haiku. It contains the idea of one anyway. Limits are meant to be paid attention to, but maybe not religiously followed. Yesterday I moderated the adult forum on forgiveness, then considered the 10:30 service. I heard it from a distance, talking with a friend in the library. Then I considered the annual meeting. This weekend was not a time for large groups of people. I drove home in the snow, happy I had done what I needed to do, happy I had considered the rest, happy to be home.

We all have them.
The question is
How do we live
Within them?

Commentary

In 2007 I left parish ministry, stopped paying into the Church Pension Fund, after 27 years.  Every year I get a statement saying:  if I will only retire, if I will only begin receiving the money I have earned, I will be removed from this limbo, back into the land of the living, albeit... retired.  There is more than one way to live life on the edge of things.  I seem to have discovered more ways than many.

I dropped off the face

When I stopped paying into

The Church Pension Fund.