A few weeks ago, I began to gather up tweets from you, our amazing readers, responding to the question: “What Lenten disciplines have you loved/hated? Has a Lenten discipline changed how you understand your faith? Have you broken one & received wisdom from breaking it?” Of course, now our world feels different.  I hesitated to even publish this compilation, wondering if it was lost on a world disoriented by pandemic.

But after reflection, I wonder if we need the exploration of spiritual disciplines especially now, as we face the reality of pandemic.  When disoriented, we look for, well, order.  As Christians, we are called to turn to God in prayer, knowing our God to be a God that arrives to chaos with order.  Now, we might feel the peace of God when we remember that God doesn’t just bring order to the chaos of roaring seas, that God doesn’t just bring order to the chaos of death as God orders it to life again, that God doesn’t just bring order to the seemingly large powers and principalities of darkness, but that God also brings order to your chaos.  Yes, God brings order to your particular chaos.  And we find our place in that ordering--or maybe better put, we receive some of God’s ordering power--through disciplines, as we prayerfully introduce them into our lives, trusting that in them, however we keep them and however we forget them, God’s power serves to lovingly draw us back onto the path when we have, as we are wont to do, wandered back into our own devices and desires.

So, with a splash of humor (as is my style), enjoy these submissions from you, our dear readers.  I’m grateful for your wisdom in a time when I yearn for wisdom. I’m grateful for your lightheartedness in a time when I need my heart lightened.  I’m grateful for the courage of your truth in a time when I need the power of truth to order me rightly.

Please note that, except for one that included an explicit note that it could be shared publicly, all submissions received via Direct Message have been published anonymously.  There is ambiguity given how different people use the DM function, so I made this decision out of love for our readers. If you submitted via DM and would like to claim your submission publicly, by all means do so through sharing the article!

Have more disciplines you’d like to share?  Tag @earthandaltar in a tweet or comment on this article on Facebook! Keep your eyes peeled for our next We Asked, You Answered!