Today we are offered this verse from Isaiah, and invited to pause to plan what our forty days might involve..

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.  I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’ Isaiah 46:10 (NIV)

Three actions:

FIVE MINUTES

A quick and effective way to prep? Pray. Ask God to be at the centre of your generosity this Lent.  Write down your prayer and pin it somewhere you’ll see it every day.

TEN MINUTES

Start a journal. Keep a list of all the people you'd like to bless this Lent, and use it to document all the things you learn over the next 40 days.

ONE HOUR

Create a generosity kit that you'll keep with you every day during Lent.  Fill it up with things you can use to bless others – a chocolate bar, a spare umbrella and a few pens.

Does any of these appeal to you? 

I'll let you in to a secret - the word "journal" made me groan, carrying with it memories of all those years of mandatory journalling.  So I'm going to re-imagine that as "blog", and rather than a list of people I might want to bless, it will be a set of daily reflections on the actions I choose.

Praying is always good, so I can do that one too.  Not so sure about the 'generosity pack' that feels everso slightly contrived, though I get the intent.  Maybe I'll take a wander round the shops and pick up a few odds and ends?

Today I will be taking the kitties to meet the V.E.T.  I am aware I never took them a 'thank you' gift for taking care of Holly, so today's "random act of generosity" may take the form of something for them...

Glasgow Uni has undertaken a huge project to remember, on their anniversary of death, all alumni killed in World War I, and to place a poppy cross in the University memorial garden.

Today it was one Thomas Hathaway, a Lancastrian-born man who never studied there but was part of the OTC.  He was just 20 years old when he was killed.

This morning I was doing Uni Chapel prayers and landed up with Jeremiah 2: 1 - 13 to reflect upon.  As I commented, I always seem to get thorny passages!

One thread in this reading was of following God into the wilderness... hints of the Exodus story, maybe hints (retrospectiviely) of Christ's temptations.  The wilderness - an unknown, possibly barren, potentially hostile place.  A place of risk.  A place of repentance.  A place of reflection.  (I got a bit carried away with my "r" words).

Lent is, metaphorically anyway, an opportunity to choose to enter a wilderness period, a place and space entrered precisely for its lack of familiarty and comfort, a place to reflect, a space to review, reconsider and re-evaluate.  A place to meet ourselves and make peace with ourselves.  A place to prepare for the challenges of the Easter season.

I think there is a risk for Christians of sanctifying struggle and suffering by comparing it to the "wilderness" that I am quite wary of in writing this post.  The lenten 'wilderness' is different because it is voluntarily entered... it is a chosen place and space for a defined duration and purpose.  It is a conscious decision to walk into an unknown and uncharted place, but with a clearly defined point on the horizon towards which we walk... So long as keep our eyes looking forward, we can't get lost; so long as we keep plodding onwards, we will arrive.

Perhaps, after all, what we do is wander along the brink of the wilderness...?

Shrove Tuesday... that day when tradition dictates that we gorge ourselves on all the fatty, yummy, bad-for-us things in the cupboard before we become abstemious until Easter. 

From 1978 to 2010 I dutifully kept a "lenten fast", first giving up sugar in drinks (to which I never returned) then sweets and chocolates, cakes and puddings, coffee, tea and indeed lots of other things.  Mostly it was an act of discipline but I also set aside such money as I would have spent on treats to donate to a charitable appeal - I wasn't "just" giving up, I was also giving out.

In 2011, Lent caught me unawares and, recently released from the dietary and lifestyle restrictions of cancer treatment I didn't give anything up.  Instead, I began a practice of using the Christian Aid "Count Your Blessings" scheme to collect (quite large sums of) money for the charity in gratitude for things taken for granted in this country.

This year I'm having another change.  The 40 Acts campaign is about generosity, with assorted challenges to be attempted each day.  It's new for me (it's actually been around quite a long time) and I am looking forward to the challenge it offers.  Watch this space to see how I get on!

This afternoon I decided to go to town to spend my assorted Waterstone's gift cards (other shops are, of course, available).  I had a few ideas of things I wanted to look for, but was mainly looking forward to a nice browse and possibly a cuppa in the instore coffee shop.

The coffee shop was mobbed, so I abandoned that idea very quickly.  In one section, anything I might have been interested in I already owned, whilst in another it took ages to locate the appropriate part of the alphabet in their somewhat muddled system.  Not quite the leisurely browse I'd imagined, but fun all the same - just way too many things to choose from to the point of near overwhelming.

In the end I bought a Malta tourist book (ahead of my autumn holiday - good to get organised!), an English translation of the Qur'an (because people are constantly citing bits out of context and I thought it might be good to see what it actually says), a complete book of Robert Burns poetry (educational if nowt else, but also in memory of someone) and two cat books, one more serious than the other.

And I came home with change left on one of my gift cards, so all in all a good day out.