Among all the things I've learned since becoming Orthodox on April 4, 2015, perhaps the most humbling lesson has been this: liturgy is rarely a time of worship for parents of small children. That reality is magnified the more children you have, which in the case of my wife and I, is five. Well, four young children (ages 2-7), with a 12-year-old who bears her elder status with at least a small amount of tolerance. I admit to losing many hours over the last five years to resentment about this difficulty, especially when well-meaning friends of older generations, who've never born my burden, console me that, "This is your present cross. This is your form of worship." I can assure you, I'm not worshipping. As such, I'm afraid my wife and I have probably born these many weeks of liturgical absence better than most.

A good friend of mine asked me on Facebook yesterday why I observe Lent. The question is a natural one for biblically conscious Christians who rightly desire that their religious practice have some kind of basis in the scriptures. My response to my friend was probably the most in-depth written treatment I've ever attempted of how I've come to understand the spiritual reasoning behind Lent in the Orthodox tradition, so I figured it was worth cross-posting here at my blog. To set this up, my friend had posted a general question to her Facebook followers about why any among them observe Lent. I commented saying that I would try to find her a concise Orthodox treatment of the question, since some others who commented had gone down the road of "anti-religion" proof-texting. But she countered that she wanted to know why I personally found Lent to be valuable. Why do I personally observe it? This was my response, cleaned up slightly for this more formal platform. ​

With the onset of Lenten abstentions barely nine days hence, I recently got to reminiscing about my first Paschal liturgy. It's an experience I've always envisioned telling as one event along the lengthy timeline of my Orthodox conversion, but as a working, married father of four, writing that complete history seems to become less feasible as time elapses. Given the nearness of the Paschal season and the fact that I haven't written anything in months, I felt this a worthy exercise.

When I was in college, I went to a bar in downtown Chattanooga, TN to see Derek Webb in concert, he of Caedmon's Call fame. That night he introduced a new, as-yet-unreleased song that immediately became a favorite of mine. It was called "Wedding Dress," and it pulled from repeated themes in the scriptures of harlotry. One thinks of Hosea's wife, various other Biblical allusions to the nation of Israel and her prostitution of herself, and also a few notable courtesans of the New Testament. If you're unfamiliar with the song, have a look at it here: