Lenten Fasts

Ever since becoming a Lutheran I have heard people speak of Lenten fasts, giving up chocolate or tv or whatever. Mark and I have over the years gone from giving up something, doing nothing other than trying to survive the hectic church schedule, to trying to add something. This year we have been trying, and mostly accomplishing, praying the Litany together each night along with reading the Scripture from and Devotional written by our dear friend Pastor Walt Snyder. But it occurred to me last night as we were coming home from church that we are doing oh so much more than that. We are trying to put life back together and thankfully with John in it.

Four months in Omaha and two months prior to that of constant hospitalization in Columbia has left us trying to remember how to live in the same house together. Mark got used to the quiet, John and I got used to the gone, and none of us ever got used to the missing each other. John's medications and care routines are completely different, laundry is different, supplies don't fit in cabinets that they once did and John out grew all his clothes. We are still all dealing with anxiety issues leftover from Omaha and there are times that it seems that fear still lives right next to our hearts and won't go away. We are over joyed with John's growth and health and being together and does anyone remember where we put this or that and oh wait we forgot to get the plates on the truck, and yes daddy is going to work but he will be back in a couple hours, oh look he's here already!

We are blessed to have come home during this time of Lent with it's increased focus on church and time in the Word both at home and in Worship. We are constantly being refocused and as each day passes we are slowly starting to settle in to our new life. We are looking forward to spending Palm Sunday with our dear friends as their daughter is confirmed and then Holy Week at home. Often after Easter we are tired and relieved to finally be through with the hustle and bustle of this part of the church year, this year I find that I am looking forward to Easter, to hearing my beloved proclaim Christ's resurrection and singing the Alleluias as I sit by my little boy who was brought back from the dead but I will miss the extra services of Lent and somehow the non-Lenten seasons seem more like fasting and the increased times in worship during Lent is a feast of the Word for my heart as we settle into this new life.