READ: Mark 1.3-9 When I was a boy, about the ages of my own sons, the movie “Rocky” came out. You know, the boxing movie with Sylvester Stallone? I saw it at the movies with my dad, and that quickly became my favorite childhood movie of all-time. The day after I saw it — and I’m not even kidding — I’d wake up at 5 am, crack two eggs and eat them raw, put on my hooded sweatshirt, and go for a run, culminating at the steps of our library’s front door. Every. Single. Morning. I

READ: Genesis 2.4b-23 Genesis 3.19 tell us: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” In a few moments, we will hear those words again, as the remembrance of our brokenness and mortality are smudged upon our foreheads and we begin this 40-day journey of repentance and fasting in that season which we call Lent. But before then. let’s think about where we come from. I

Today marks the first day of the season of Lent — 40 days that end on Holy Saturday. The significance of those 40 days is because that’s how long Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, And on the fortieth day, Jesus began his ministry. In a nutshell, we could say Jesus fasted, turned from temptation, then obediently followed God’s call for his life, and — Praise God — for our lives as well. As we know, the first day in Lent is also Ash Wednesday. Not ironically, we also fast, r

READ: Mark 9:2-9 Have you ever taken one of those quizzes — you know, like in a magazine or online — where it asks you a host of questions based on your preferences, then your answers are calculated and the quiz makes some sort of recommendation based on your responses? Your perfect profession, your ideal soulmate, the best dog for your personality… The one I like the most is when you put in your responses and it tells you where you should be living, geographically… The quest

READ Mark 1:29-39 PBS has a wonderful series on the radio called Story Corps, and specifically, there’s a book and video project called “Listening Is an Act of Love,” that’s based on the Story Corps idea. In a nutshell, it started almost two decades ago as a project to record everyday people’s life stories. And so PBS put these little recording booths in a few shopping malls and other public places around the country, and people could go into them, sit down, hit the “record”