This page of our bulletin is usually focused on our common experience of following Jesus. We are pilgrims, trying to keep in step with our Lord. Today, I use this space to inform you of my own pilgrimage. God is taking Miriam and me in a new direction. It is an unexpected turn in the road for us - but we have no doubt about His leading.

In her book, “Prayers in the Night” Tish Harrison Warren writes, “The Christian life is more like a poem than an encyclopedia.” It has definition that can be articulated. You want an answer - look it up. It has mystery that allows for multiple understandings. Two opposing understandings can be correct. We are prone to push the Christian faith into one of those two labels. Literalists wave the Biblical encyclopedia. Mystics proclaim riddles from the Biblical poem. But both approaches need to be held together, despite the tension. How? Maybe the means is in a song.

Carnival, Pancake Day, Mardi-Gras, Ash Wednesday - you recognize the words, but may struggle to explain their significance. They all have to do with Lent. Lent is a 40 day preparation for Easter. Since Lent is a period of restraint, some use Carnival as a final party before the disciplines begin.