RENEWAL PRACTICES -

GIVING UP AND TAKING UP

What hinders your encounter with God? In what ways are you broken that prevent you from embracing the joy, peace and beauty of God’s love being continually poured out for you, and through you for the world?

Lent it a time of reflection and intentionality toward renewing our lives and moving toward wholeness. We seek to understand and move away from the things within and around us that cause or exacerbate our brokenness. Simultaneously we embrace those things that will promote our healing and flourishing. We might frame this as a meditation on what hinders or enhances our connection and intimacy and faithfulness with God.
So, what might you “give up” or “take up” during Lent? Here are some thoughts:

• Give up – self-doubt, self-judgement, self-criticism
• Take up – accepting that you are a beloved child of God
• Give up – over-achieving, fiercely independent, autonomous thinking
• Take up – embracing that you need others and they need you
• Give up – a scarcity mentality that hoards time, energy, money and possessions
• Take up – an abundance mentality that trusts and gives extravagantly
• Give up – fear of strangers and suspicion of outsiders
• Take up – finding ways to make friendships across difference

Whatever you give up and take up this Lent, may you find that these practices draw you closer to God and deeper into your authentic self.
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