40 Days of Resonance

As a "side" project, TheResonant suffers from being to the side of many other areas of life: my pastoral call, family, and other volunteer projects. When something has to give, this is one of the first things. But that's no way to build momentum and a worthwhile project. So I'm embarking on a new project for the season of Lent this year: a sort of reverse idea of "giving something up". I've never been a fan of that, since it morphs all too easily from "an intention to exercise discipline for the sake of remembering the suffering of Jesus on my behalf" to "look at how much I'm suffering by choosing not to consume this arbitrary thing". So I've never really given anything up for Lent (and if I chose to, I certainly wouldn't have told you).

I've decided that this year, though, I do need to give something up, and I do need to tell you. I need to give up not writing for TheResonant. And I need to tell you about it because the whole point of this site is to offer pieces that (I pray) will resonant with people. I haven't been doing that effectively because I haven't really been writing for this all that much. It's too sporadic, and too easily not done. So I'm giving up not writing. It's sort of a reverse Lent project, because in plain language it's more about adding something than giving something up. The "giving something up" part is just to wrangle the commonly-expected language of Lent into this; to give up a negative is a sort of double negative that would be better expressed simply as, "I'm adding this".

Thus I'm inviting you to join me for "40 Days of Resonance". Posts are coming every day of Lent. Some may be deep (or at least so I may think), some may be quick; I pray that, no matter their length, they will resonate with you. And I pray that this exercise in writing and discipline will bear fruit both for me and you.

If you're wondering about Lent, it's a season of the church year which happens every year just before Easter. It's a season of 40 days that has a theme of repentance and meditation on the suffering of Jesus for us sinners. It's 40 days long because Jesus was in the wilderness 40 days before being tempted by the devil right after He was baptized (Matthew 4:1-11). It starts on Ash Wednesday and ends the Saturday before Easter Sunday, sometimes called Holy Saturday. However, if you count the days on a calendar, you'll find that from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday is 46 days. So why 40 days? The Sundays within the season aren't actually part of the season; every Sunday is a mini-Easter, so we don't count them as included in the season of Lent.

So, being the pastor that I am, I'll use the official count of the days of Lent as the posting plan; that's a resonant idea if I've ever had one. You can expect new posts each day of Lent, which won't include the Sundays. If you have questions, comments, or something else that may spur on a post or six, please feel free to comment below or use the "Ask Away" link at the top of the page.