What makes Lent powerful is its insistence on not celebrating, on demanding a season of restraint. What makes Lent powerful is that it invites us to make a choice toward honesty with God and ourselves, a choice to get solemn about what we discover in our core, and live that restraint on the outside. It's a forty day invitation to move from the edges of our lives to the deep, heavy center of us.

• Read Jesus's words in Matthew 23
• Sarah Bessey's new book Field Notes for the Wilderness releases today!
• Brian McLaren's book is Faith After Doubt
• Micha is offering a zoom workshop for her Substack paid subscribers this February 24. Today is the last day to sing up, Here's a link to learn more about it!
• If you're interested in participating in the workshop and/or future online interactive conversations with me, become a paid subscriber and support my work! Here's a link to learn more.
• This reflection and practice were also published this week in The Slow Way Letter on Substack.
• Find a transcript of this episode here.
• Find Micha's website and sign up for her weekly newsletter here.
• Find Micha on Instagram.
• Find Micha on Threads.
• Micha's other (award winning!) podcast, The Lucky Few, is all about Down syndrome advocacy. She cohosts it with Heather Avis and Mercedes Lara.

Preorder Micha's new book Blessed Are The Rest of Us: How Limits and Longing Make Us Whole for 40% off at BakerBookHouse.com. The first 200 people to preorder from Baker will also receive a signed copy of the book and "The Lucky Few" temporary tattoo. So fun! Jump over there and get your preorder in.