Lent in Pictures - This Year's Discipline

Lenten Photo-a-Day Challenge - Click here for full details...

Lent Photo a Day Challenge

About a week before Ash Wednesday, the discussion starts at our house about what Lenten disciplines we are going to observe  this year.  For many years, it was easy to just do the same thing.. give up chocolate or fried foods or soft drinks... one year I even gave up meat, but only once.  But after a while, I knew I could  do those things... and after Easter I went back to my old ways, enjoying those easily sacrificed items.  There didn't seem to be any real change happening inside of me, and a few years ago I decided to do something different.

That was how this blog was started... I posted every week for the whole Lenten season, and was pretty faithful about posting at least monthly and sometimes more often.  The change came in how I thought about the joys and the challenges of being a person of faith and on being a military spouse.

Last year's challenge involved exercise... and I'm proud to say that I continue to exercise for an hour 4-5 days per week.  I am healthier, lighter, and just feel better.  Recently, I have even noticed that if I don't walk or swim or go to the gym, I feel pretty crummy.  I'm just happy that I took on that challenge... I've achieved much more than I ever imagined I could.  How is this a faith issue, you might ask?  God wants us as our best, I think, and it's hard to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength, if the we don't have the strength to go the places God would send us.

So it's fortuitous that I was reading some emails this week and found this Photo-a-Day challenge at RethinkChurch.org - the social networking arm of the United Methodist Church.  And the more I think about taking this on, the more I realize that it will be a real challenge.  I'm not going to worry about taking a new picture every day.  I have lots of photos that will really fit well with the topic of the day.  But I will be carrying my camera around, and looking for ways to capture the spirit of the world around me... to see God in all of the places I go and in everything I do.

Several people have expressed an interest in joining me in this challenge... It's going to be a very interesting journey, I think.

Peace, Deb


"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter."  ~Ansel Adams 

"The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer."  ~Author Unknown  

(2 Timothy 1:6-10)  For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.  For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.  So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.  Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.  He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.