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There’s a scene in About a Boy where Hugh Grant’s character describes his life as made up of half-hour blocks—not so much time as to be intimidating, but long enough to do things. Once he adds up all of those blocks, his unemployed self says, “I often wonder, to be absolutely honest, if I’d ever have time for a job.”

People often ask me what my ethnicity is. Usually they assume I am Chinese—or Korean, if they have never met a Korean person before.

Ash Wednesday is the most honest day of the year. Honesty is what kick-starts the cycle of grace. When the process is working well, it’s almost instantaneous.

As we mentioned last week, Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 13, the day after Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday!). All around the world, millions of Christians will participate in a church service or liturgy that somberly underscores our mortality as creatures and our sinfulness as human beings. 

The month of February is set aside to reflect on the many Black leaders who have shaped United States history, and who are often unjustly skimmed over in our classrooms.

We are about to go to our friends’ house to watch the Super Bowl. There are a few things I want to tell you.

“What are you reading?” the boy asked, pointing at the pictures in my book. My graphic novel wasn’t toddler appropriate, so I replied, “It’s about superheroes!” “Wow,” he whispered, reverently. His mother, sitting next to him on the train, gently prodded, “You like superheroes!” He nodded vigorously.

I was feeling a little stuck. You’ve been a Christian your whole life, I told myself in a mini pep talk. You should know how to have a meaningful quiet time, a deep prayer life, a correct perception of God. But the truth was, the practices that had been helpful in the past no longer were.

You can hear from God. I bet no one’s ever sat you down and explicitly (and bravely) said that out loud, to your face, because no one wants to look bad if you take a risk to listen for God’s voice and then don’t hear anything. 

In January at our blog, we’ve been looking at spiritual practices that can open us to the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work in our lives.