“One of the assertions of science is that we don’t know everything, and that in order to increase our knowledge we have to be in dialogue with nature. And it has to be a constant dialogue. And it’s not sufficient to end that dialogue because as we increase our ability to measure nature, we can ask questions that are of a finer and finer level. And so we keep finding new things not because nature is changing but because we are increasing our capacity to ask the questions of nature.“
–Physicist Jim Gates
“And so by embracing our limits, by embracing our fallibility, we become more knowledgeable.”
~All quotes from Jim Gates interview on NPR’s On Being. You can download the entire podcast here.~
It started like this:
But I was afraid you couldn’t read it that way, so I typed it out here.
(Because I’m still trying to get it all wrong. That’s not easy for me.)
(Well, not on purpose. I get it all wrong by accident all the time.)
(You know what I mean…)
I used to be a think-out-side-the-box kind of person.
And then I became an adult.
But I’m taking baby steps to change that.
I bought a colored purse.
And not a dark color, but a bright! happy! one!
I am writing the wrong way
*gasp*
And hoping the figurative follows the literal.
It feels good to be different.
(I’d just forgotten how good.)
I typically take Lent very seriously.
The symbolism weighs heavy on my heart and always pushes me into a cycle of introspection.
I’ve given up a variety of things. (Diet Coke, meat, yelling, makeup).
I’ve also taken up some things. (Kindness, giving, living purposely).
But this year I was overwhelmed with getting ready to leave my family behind for 5 days
And I was in Nashville on Ash Wednesday and it just kinda flewrightbyme before I realized it.
And then I got home and I was hugging and cuddling and editing and uploading.
(I still haven’t completely unpacked.)
And I kinda convinced myself that it was too late.
If I didn’t start on DAY ONE, I can’t start at all.
But that’s silly, isn’t it?
The point of Lent is not that we deny ourselves something just because we’re “supposed to”
But because of the self-examination it provides us.
(And it will take much more than 40 days for me to complete the process of self-examination!)
And so now, nearly two weeks late, I’m finding my stride again.
And I am sitting here with pen and paper and writing.
Writing for me, but also writing for God.
And they are words that will stay in the holy of holies of my heart.
And they are words that will be written down and tucked away.
Whispers from my heart to my God.
So for Lent, I give up nothing but my time.
And I will use it to glorify my God with words that aren’t big enough or bold enough or sacred enough.
But my God knows that it isn’t the words that matter, but the heart behind them.
And that heart is big enough, bold enough, sacred enough.
That heart is enough…
I am enough.
Because I was created by God.
And so were you.
Thanks be to God!
