I’m not much of a baseball person. I do like going to the games, though. Eating overpriced bad-for-you food with forty thousand of my closest friends and then having the freedom to toss the food wrappers and empty cups on the floor in front of me is about as good as it gets. But, I have a really hard time watching it on television. Baseball, the sometimes stately and other times ornery grandfather of all American sports traditions, will start soon. Within the next few weeks, teams will start gathering together for spring training with the intent of getting all team members on the “same page.” It’s about making sure that everyone is prepared for what is coming in late May: the start of the season — when it all counts.

Some players, I’m sure will be overjoyed to be back on the field. For others, it’s just more practice: more drills that have been done and redone countless times. Yet, it’s out of practice that freedom to play comes more naturally and with greater aptitude. In other words, hitting baseballs and running bases, and working out in the gym enable a greater likelihood of success when real opponents are faced.

Lent, like baseball has a spring-training air about it. Lent is a season of spiritual practice. Spiritual practices, or disciplines, prepare and free us. Lent is the 40 day run-up to Easter. It involves a heart-preparation and a tuning in to God. It is a time to free ourselves from things that have mastery over us by fasting (going without certain things) from the little comforts we deem to be necessities. It is a time to identify with Jesus’ ministry, suffering, and journey toward the cross. It is not, as some have come to know it, a second shot at unfulfilled New Year’s diet resolutions. It is not a way to garner spiritual brownie points or later-to-be-used indulgence credits. The Lenten season starts next week at what is called “Ash Wednesday.” As such, Mariners MV will hold an Ash Wednesday service at 7pm on February 10th.

For people in a number of Church traditions, Ash Wednesday services may be familiar to you. For others, like myself, who grew up in churches that eschewed such practices on the belief that things that felt like “ritualistic” were either irrelevant or perhaps harmful, we have often overlooked the power characterizing such gatherings. We’ll sing. We’ll hear a brief teaching from the Bible. We’ll respond by receiving the mark of the ashes upon our foreheads (an identification with our own mortality and a traditional symbol of our need for a spiritual u-turn). Then, we’ll make personal commitments to surrender some things during the next 40 days that may have mastery over us (traditionally called a “fast”).

Everyone is welcome. For people with kids younger than kindergarten age, child care will be provided.

See you soon,
Jeff