Lent

aah sunday.

this morning we went to church and my old neighbor aaron went with us. this was pretty huge because he grew up and lives a very different lifestyle than we do. he is truly one of my best friends so the fact that he took the initiative to ask about our church and take time off from work meant a lot to me. he really wants a community of friends and people of similar ideals and he definitely believes in God but he hasn't been involved in any kind of organized religion since he was younger. we have a dumplings date a few times a month at this amazing place near us called Ying's. so over dumplings tomorrow i'll try to tease out his impressions but already he said he wanted to keep coming every sunday. YES

we had an amazing service today about Lent (which starts wednesday) and it's purpose is to deny yourself something that takes up space in your life. ultimately this will cause you pain and reveal desire. then you are to channel that pain and desire and attach it to God. i am embarrassed to admit this but i have never observed Lent before, though this year i am. i am so thankful that we attend a church that celebrates the old and new traditions of expressing Christian faith. we take traditional communion every week, sing the apostle's creed, encourage praying the hours, and so on and so forth. i feel so liberated to come to church messy (emotional, spiritual, or otherwise) and let myself be right where i am without feeling pressure.

anyways, i am going Big (for me) and laying off facebook for the next 40 days. i am quite intimidated by this but hey, let's just rip off that bandaid of hyper-pseudo-connection and see what's underneath shall we?