Welcome to Lent 2013!

(…and your burden is light!)

A 40-day Lenten Blog on Taking Ownership of the Purse You've Been Given

Welcome to the 2013 Lenten Blog for All Saints Episcopal Church!


During the next 40 days, we hope you'll ben enriched by the daily readings from Forward Day by Day and a commentary about our bags. Bags? Keep reading sister or brother…Just like Austin Powers in the hilarious movie of the same name, we often deny the contents of our briefcase! Lent is a wonderful time to remember that God fills our supply sack daily with all the resources, tools and strengths we need to bless others. Maybe its our Lenten calling to take ownership of our purse!


It IS our bag, baby!


This Lent, be challenged to read God's word, pray to be a blessing and eagerly await the opportunity to open your bag.

Join in and see what surprises God has given you to help others out.

Friday, February 15, 2013

February 15


Click here for: Today's Forward Day by Day Readings

I help get my kids backpacks all ready to go each morning. I put the lunch box in for my daughter, remind her to put her homework in there, sometimes I pack a sweater. And of course, this is all done in a hurry and there's lots of screaming involved. But once she's all packed up, she has everything she needs to focus on her school day (with any help from above) Whew! Exhausting!

What a nice thought that God does the same thing for us each day as our Father-Mother-God. (and praises, he does it without fussing, stressing or elevating his voice!) He thinks ahead for us, collects our supplies and tucks it all away until he needs us to use it. And I have to imagine the stuff he gathers for our packs is different each day, because...hello...what day is ever the same?

Now, sometimes my daughter gets to school and she freaks out because she thinks she doesn't have her reading book or some crucial fifth grade document. Instead of looking for it, sometimes she'll take a point deduction from her teacher...when all the while, the stuff she needs is right under that sweet little nose of hers. And boy howdy, let's talk summer camp trunk packing for a minute. I pack the kids' trunk for their month away in North Carolina with EVERYTHING they could possibly need and then some. If it's on the packing list, it's in there...sometimes twice over. And every summer, my son's trunk comes back with many things completely untouched

That's kind of like us, I think. God packs us up real good each  morning... He fill us to the brim with our daily utensils. And sometimes, when we get into a situation that requires something more of us — we have no idea we even have access to it. Or we just choose not to use it.

Today, my bag was full of balloons. Pink balloons. And lots of them. My department at work decorated    for Sunday's 26.2 with Donna Breast Cancer Marathon. We lined the fence with them. There was pink EVERYWHERE. To some, we were schlepping bags full of balloons. But dig a little deeper, and those bags were full of support, encouragement and love. God packed my bag well today! As if he would do anything else but!

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