Under the leadership of its long-time head-pastor Bill Couch, the culture of Lakeridge United Methodist Church had become very focused on issues of poverty. I told Bill about A Place at the Table and proposed to him that I write the annual Lenten devotionals for 2014, and focus on issues related to poverty. He said that sounded good, and so I did. It was a ton of work (and I learned that though Lent is billed as being 40 days long, that doesn’t include Sundays; it actually takes 47 days to get from Ash Wednesday to Easter). Though for several reasons it was terrifying to do this, I received affirmation and support from my church. I went on to write devotionals for Advent, 2014 and wrote for Lent again in 2015. That was the end of those, because we moved back to the Dallas area.

At our new church, Community Life Church (fondly known as CLife) in Sunnyvale, TX, I am part of a team of volunteers and staff who write daily devotionals which are sent out to church members and friends. I love doing this, and have been so grateful to have the opportunity to write.

Now for this blog…this year for Lent, I was praying about how to honor it – some version of fasting? Something I would do or not do? I was praying and heard “Write a blog.” WHAT??? There was, and is, nothing in me that wants to write a blog. I have issues with it…chief among them is that it seems that these days everyone is writing a blog, and I just don’t want to add to the “noise” out there, unless it is very clearly something God is calling me to. I spoke to David Griffin, one of my pastors, about it, and asked God for confirmation. I received two confirmations: one was some encouragement from a retired English teacher, someone I had never met. Interesting. I also received confirmation from my dear friend Jean, in Lubbock. I told her about this idea of blogging…She is 80+ years old, and she could barely hear me over the phone, and for all she understands about computers and blogging I could have been speaking German. Then she said to me, seemingly out of the blue, “Joy, I want you to write; God wants you to write.” Okay, God. Got it.