Fat Tuesday 2011-Tell it Slant

As the festivities on Bourbon street come to a halt in the wee hours of the morning, the few faithful will file into their local church to receive an ash cross upon their forehead as they enter the season of Lent. Although my Fat Tuesday lacks any of the pageantry of Mardis Gras, I still have a sense of excitement for this season in my life. Last year Michala and I were encouraged and challenged as we experimented with this thing called Lent. This year, I have bought into the idea of my local church to view this season not as a time of denial but of embrace. Instead of denying some random thing like chocolate in hopes that this will somehow deepen my connection to Jesus, I have decided to simply feast upon Him. This season I will not try to put out little fires of things I should not do, but to focus instead on the fire of God.

One of the primary ways that I hope to embrace God this season will be through a reading of Jesus' words, specifically his parables and prayers. I have enlisted Eugene Peterson's Tell it Slant to help me soak in the language of God, to listen to how the Living Word spoke. So each Thursday during Lent, I will post some insights, reflections, struggles, prayers, or stories that have been influenced by this time of embracing. I hope to honor God's words with my own words. The power of life and death reside in the tongue and I hope to align my words in a pattern of life-giving. Peterson senses the power of our words, especially in telling the Truth but that in the pattern of Jesus we see a truth-telling that was often gracious and gradual, a truth telling that embodied the idea behind this Emily Dickinson poem:

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightening to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind---

I look forward to this season of embrace and I hope to engage you as well.