Can you believe it is Lent already?  Some of you may be asking, what is Lent?  Short version is: it’s the time of year we set intentions (give something up, take on a spiritual practice, etc.) to make us aware of our humanity and our human finitude.  For this reason, we begin the season on Ash Wednesday hearing the words “From dust you cam and to dust you will return,” or “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” It is an interesting season because as we are called to face our sinfulness, we are also reminded of our beloved-ness.  Two sides of the same human coin.  We are deeply loved by God and we are made painfully aware that we are not God, we fall short. Sometimes we can get stuck in that second part and become withdrawn, complacent, and static.  We see huge problems in  our world: violence, war, hatred, prejudice, poverty, hunger, etc. and we refuse to engage because we don’t know how. That’s why we chose Brené Brown’s book, Braving the Wilderness, for this season.  It’s a field guide for engaging the wilderness (a.k.a. our world) and it all starts with her quest for true belonging (which is a quest I think we can all relate to).  So just as Christians around the world are wrestling with the tension of beloved-ness and sinfulness, Brené gives us this beautiful little book on belonging and wilderness.  Listen in and see how those two tensions are inextricably woven together.