#FoundGrace: Our Community Lenten Practice. ‘Find yourself found.’*

Last updated on: March 3, 2014 at 5:00 am by michaboyett

#FoundGrace: Our Community Lenten Practice. ‘Find yourself found.’* 2014-03-03T00:13:02-07:00 michaboyett

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I worked out Saturday morning with a friend. As we rode home together, the subject of Lent came up. “I just want to emphasize grace this Lent,” she said. “I’ve suffered enough these past few months and I feel like I need to recognize that before I give myself a checklist of tasks to live up to. I want to come into this season just letting myself experience God’s love.”

YES. Yes.

Ash Wednesday is in two days. Two days. And if you’re like me, it’s always the Monday before Ash Wednesday when I feel the frantic need to choose something. What am I going to give up? What am I going to add? How will I make sure I do my best to experience God this year? That’s my faith-as-performance tendency striking again, friends. What if this year we let go of the need to perform? What if we enter into our Lenten practices with an awareness that whatever we choose, whether it’s a discipline of doing or a discipline of doing without, we are invited to enter with this mantra on our lips.

I am _________ (giving up coffee, volunteering at the shelter, adding prayer into my routine) knowing that God already loves me. This will not make God like me more.

I am doing this thing to remind me that I am already known. I am already– right now–being found.

This Lent, I’m hosting a community Lenten Instagram series. Yes, you heard me right. A Community Lenten Instagram series! From Ash Wednesday until Easter, I’m asking you to join me in #FoundGrace, a practice to help us recognize the God Who Finds Us.

What will #FoundGrace look like?

Everyday, we will walk through our ordinary lives, looking for grace, looking for God. And then we’ll take a picture. Maybe it will be the sunset that reminds you of God’s nearness. Maybe a poem that reminds you of God’s invitation to rest. Maybe it’s your baby sleeping. Maybe it’s the coffee you’re NOT drinking. Whatever it is that reminds you that God is here finding us, snap a photo. Instagram it. And tag it with #FoundGrace. I’d love to see what you post. So tag me in the comments as well at @found_book and if I’m not following you already, I’ll be sure to follow.

I want this to be a season of looking, of paying attention, of grace. And I really want us to pay attention together. Will you join me in looking, in being found?

A Note:

I know some of you may be feeling the need to step back from social media during Lent. I totally get that and encourage you to do so.

Also, I hope this will help spread the word about my book. AND at the same time, I hope it will be life-giving for us. Publicity is a complicated thing, isn’t it? And I just want to acknowledge that to you. I hope we can hold both of those things at the same time: the practice and the publicity. I’m proud of my book and I want people to know about it. And I want people to experience the God who finds them. Maybe we can make this about both things? And we can do it with humility?

All the Found-Grace,

Micha

* Find yourself found is taken from Ann Voskamp in the Foreword of my book.

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