Blogging for Lent – More Reflections

Here is the latest collection of reflections on the beginning of Lent from my fellow bloggers.

Jeff Greer:  The Frailty of Life

Michael Winter: Fat Thursday

Michael Wallenmeyer: Lent and Hell

You can check out the blogs of other participants here

For this next week I have asked people to focus their reflection and their activities on the brokenness of our inner selves.  Here are the suggested activities from the Lenten Guide

They are based on a series of reflections Seeds For Lent produced by Mark Pierson in 2007.

Reflecting on the Water (c) Christine Sine

“Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me.”(Ps 51:10)

Read Psalm 51 in unison and then spend time in silence meditating on its implications for your life

1. Get each person to look into a mirror, and using a felt-tip marker or soap, write or draw onto your reflection words and symbols that represent your anxieties and fears. When you are ready, spray glass cleaner onto the mirror and wipe it clean
2. Pray together for God’s cleansing in your hearts.Reflect on those things in your life that focus you on yourself rather than on God. Discuss the following question
3. What is one thing you struggle with that distracts you from a whole-hearted commitment to Christ? Write down your areas of struggle on a piece of paper
4. How could you use this first week of Lent to initiate a new spiritual discipline that would bring reconciliation and healing in your place of struggle? Some possibilities you might like to consider are:
5. Free up an extra fifteen minutes each day to pray and read the Scripture
6. Memorize one new scripture verse each day.
7. Take time each day to read a chapter from a book on spiritual disciplines, such as Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline. In what way could you help each other maintain this discipline?
8. Choose a day during this first week of Lent to fast. Use meal times for special prayers. Focus specifically on your failures and broken places, seeking repentance and asking God for forgiveness.
9. Seek out one person that you have held a grudge against or treated unjustly and seek forgiveness. Is there restitution necessary?