Lent Police + Louisiana = A taller soapbox

I've really been loving these passages recently. I just copied them over from BibleGateway.com.
2 Corinthians 5:11-6:2
11Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
1As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. 2For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you."[a] I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.
Psalm 138:3
3 When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted. :)

Pretty much unrelated to the above passages, the holiday (yes, I really do view it as a holiday) of Lent starts tomorrow. You giving anything up? I really, really recommend it. You may say, as do half the people I try to convince: "I'm not Catholic." Who cares? I know I don't and God doesn't either! ha So here's my soapbox. It's a good opportunity to build self-discipline as well as more reliance on the Holy Spirit to fill the void that you normally try to fill with something else. I don't know, maybe you are naturally one of those people who doesn't try to fill yourself with things or relationships, or situations and are always completely reliant on God. Just like the saying, "You cannot not communicate.", I believe you cannot not fill yourself. Whether you realize it or not, you are putting in or allowing things in which fill you and shape you to be the person you are. Jesus was intentional about what he filled himself with - the power of God's spirit - and part of his intentionality involved going without. (Example: fasting from food for 40 days - same length of time as Lent!) So my (and make no mistake, I may seem like a brilliant intellectual, :) but I'm not claiming to have the inside view on this anymore than any of you would) take on lent, is not so much about the giving up and emptying and beating yourself into the ground. It's more about giving up and emptying in order to be more intentional about being filled with the power of God. I'm not judging if you don't do lent, but it's been beneficial to me every year I've done it, so I like to share the love.
Have any of you guys tried the flavored folgers coffee? I'm drinking the chocolate silk blend right now and it is yummy.

The Season of Mardi Gras

Craziness is consuming my life right now, so haven't had much chance to stay up with anyone. I feel very out of the loop (my own doing). Here's an update on me. :)

School is going well. After we come back from the break next week, I'll be starting co-therapy. Kind of scary, but everything is so busy I haven't had time to get truly nervous about it yet. Schools in LA are off from Mon.-Wed. of next week for Mardi Gras. Then Thurs.-Sat. is the Louisiana MFT conference in Baton Rouge and I'll be going to that. Should be great. Several MFT big names will be there presenting, so I'm looking forward to it.

My job at the center is going well. The people there are great. Every Wed. are small group meetings called Huddle. (This place is like no other place I've worked before.) My group is called Catfish and Grits and is all about learning about the Mississippi Delta. I could devote several blogs to talking about that. The culture here is very different and so we've talked about that and had a chance to take some field trips. Yesterday we went to the Tensas Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately we got lost so didn't see too much wildlife. Mainly deer and a few birds. There are alligators and Louisiana black bears (estimated count on the refuge is between 400 and 650) and tons of other wildlife. Really wanted to see a bear, but of course, didn't happen. I could have settled for an alligator, too. Instead just got to see cypress trees and cypress knees. Very interesting. Loved the trip. It was so nice to be outdoors and I heard it was 85 degrees yesterday, so it was a pleasant day for a trip like that. Not too humid either. :)

A couple weeks ago I went to a local Mardi Gras parade. It's a big deal here, of course, and hearing what I've heard about New Orleans, I didn't know how much I wanted to go to this one, but I was assured it was family friendly and pretty harmless. The parade was at night, so taht was different. I still need to look this up, but the theme or name of the parade or something was the Crewe of Janis. Not sure what that is all about, something French maybe? Lots of people were wearing masks. I saw some crazy hats and a lot of green, purple, and gold. The other big thing was all of the beads. People on every float were throwing the beads and the idea was to get as many as possible. It's different than New Orleans, because here, all you have to do is yell and scream and they throw them at you. Like I said, it's the family friendly version. I've never seen so many beads in my life. Side note, today a guy I know had beads that he had gotten from the Catholic student center at lunch, so there are different meanings for them depending on where you are. There were the normal bands that came through, which is always my favorite part. One of the most interesting parts was the sons of the confederacy. According to my friends there were many more participants this year than there have been in the past; they believed it was due to Obama becoming president. All I know is that there were a lot of rebel flags and there were definitely no black people in the group. They didn't reenact anything, but they did shoot a few times. So that was my Mardi Gras experience. Also, a girl brought a King Cake to class this morning. It was pretty good -- more like sweet bread with gold, purple, and green sprinkles on top. This one didn't have a baby in it. Supposedly the baby represents baby Jesus. I asked what you get if you find the baby in your piece and they said that you get to bring the next King cake. After being here and seeing all the fun traditions, I have a new take on Mardi Gras. Don't really care to experience the New Orleans version after what I've heard about it, but the Monroe version has been a blast! Which brings me to the all-important question that must be asked at this time of year. What are you giving up for Lent? It's a great chance to put a little discipline into your life. I recommend it. I believe this is year number 8 for me, and each year it gets a little sweeter. That is, if I don't give up sweets.