Remember, O Man, That You Are Dust

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season. Unless you’re a zealously devout Catholic, chances are your idea of Lent is either

A) the past tense of the word “lend,”


B) your grandma yelling at you for forgetting you’re not supposed to eat meat on Fridays, or


C) the stuff you find in you pants pockets.


And that's understandable. The liturgical calendar isn’t exactly the sexiest thing in the world (nobody’s going to confuse it for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar), and nobody really talks about it much outside of the Catholic church. But it's also a shame. Everybody pays attention to Easter, you can't fully understand Easter without also understanding Lent. And just as Advent points us to Christmas, Lent prepares us for the passion of Holy Week and the joy of Easter Morning.


The purpose of lent is not to become super-holy by fasting from your vice of choice. The purpose of lent is to remember. To remember that Easter is not primarily about fluorescent colors and chocolate bunnies. To remember that life is not mostly a story about me. To remember that “we are dust, and to dust we shall return.’ Lent is about actively reminding myself that what Jesus did on the cross matters to me on a daily basis, to the extent that I'm going out of my way to remove things that distract me from the heaviness of that truth. Ultimately, Lent is about getting my eyes off me and fixing them on Jesus.


With that in mind, here are a few things to keep in mind during Lent this year.

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Morning, Friendly! (or Thoughts From My Bed)

Oh, it's gonna be a great day.

There are few things in life better than breakfast in bed. Sometimes it’s even better when you don’t have to make it yourself, but other times there’s a certain kind of satisfaction to be had when you can climb back into your bed after having already gotten up to start your day to enjoy the delicious plate of waffles you’ve just made for yourself. It means you’re taking the time to enjoy the finer things in life. Or you’re just really lazy. I like to tell myself it’s the former, mostly because it keeps me from chastising myself while I’m enjoying my breakfast. Nothing should ever come between a man and his waffles. 

It’s Saturday morning. The week is over, and there’s plenty to talk about. Here’s what I’m thinking about this morning:

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3 Things I Learned From My Facebook Break

Last month, I decided to take a break from Facbook. My life was getting busier, and when I made the call to step away from some of the more superfluous things in my life, Facebook was one of the first things to go. What followed was the first time in years that I'd been away from the social networking giant. To say the least, it was an enlightening time for me. Here’s what I discovered during my month away.

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