Lent is coming ...

Yep, I know it's just the beginning of January, but in only a few weeks Lent will be upon us. I'm curious to know if any of you have ever observed Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter, before.

I wasn't raised in this tradition, and the first time I caught a whiff of this rich observance, I was wandering through a Catholic church in a small Lithuanian town a few weeks before Easter. It was the middle of a weekday morning, so the church was empty, but its wooden doors were open to visitors. Inside, the figure of Christ on a crucifix was shrouded in purple fabric. Sadness swept over me as I stood there, trying to make out his face.

Since then each Easter has been enriched by my own Lenten journeys. Each February I pull my copy of Bread and Wine from the bookshelf and my husband and I decide what indulgence or activity to set aside. Some years it's chocolate. Other years it's coffee. I guess that tells you something about our daily habits. While making these small sacrifices always pinches a bit, the joy it also unleashes astounds me every year.

The Waiting for Water journey leads us through the wintry reflection of Lent to the bright warmth of Easter and beyond into the rest of the year. As you ponder taking this journey in 2012, what would you consider giving up so that you can draw closer to Christ and others might live better and more whole lives?

It's a new year: Let's get out there!

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions. I could tell you that's because I don't believe in them, but really, I just don't like to associate the month of January with a feeling of impending failure. Between you and me, even if I could recall all of the resolutions I have made in previous years, I'm pretty sure I've never achieved one. (Unless it was "eat leftover Christmas fudge.") That's not to say I don't change, or that I don't believe in it. Still, though, you won't find me signing gym membership papers or shopping for a master cleanse this week.

Change, for me anyway, takes a long time and rarely occurs in sync with the annual calendar. And most of the time, any efforts I make at crystallizing my growth trajectory into SMART goals end up being a waste of time. Resolutions tend to be predicated on a straight line from action to causality, while most of our life paths resemble a bunch of squiggles and loops.

So while it's not a resolution, there is something I've been contemplating this week, and I invite you to contemplate it with me: It's time to stop asking for permission to change the world.

Now, before I tell you what I mean by that, let me tell you what I don't mean. A few years back I worked with a dynamic, intelligent woman on several projects. She was highly skilled but lived by the maxim, "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission." This made it difficult to work with her, as she frequently circumvented normal processes and plunged ahead in doing things the way it made sense to her. That's not what I have in mind here.

But how many times have you heard about a problem in the world and thought, "Someone should really do something about that"? How many times have you thought, "I'm not qualified to fix that problem, but I sure hope someone else is"? Maybe you've said to yourself, "If I knew some people doing something about that, I would help them out."

I stood back as a spectator for many years, thinking all of those thoughts and more. I thought I needed permission from some authority figure to make the world a better place. To be honest, sometimes I still look over my shoulder for someone more qualified to step forward.

A couple of years ago I began inching my way from the bleachers onto the field. It wasn't a resolution, but that year I practiced saying "yes" to opportunities or needs I came across. What a crazy year! I traveled around the world for the first time by myself, enrolled in a graduate program, went whitewater rafting, and wrote and facilitated a course about poverty for a local church.

Two years later, the yeses are snowballing, and I'm grateful. That is, when I'm not wondering what the heck I'm doing or why someone else doesn't step in and take things from here.

Why don't you join me this year? Step out of the bleachers, join the Waiting for Water movement, and get ready to change the world.

Do you still need a nudge? All right, I give you permission. Now let's do this together.