Put down the ducky.

During a sermon on will power this week, I asked which Sesame Street citizen it was who told hesitant Ernie, “you’ve got to put down the ducky if you want to play the saxophone”? (Find out for yourself with this flash from the past: I'd forgotten what a great illustration this song is of the way we need each other to develop the will power that allows us to grow in new insights and gifts. Watching the video to the end, I can feel my own resolve building with each new voice that chimes in, "put down the ducky if you want to play the saxophone." Everyone needs encouragers like that to help us build our own willpower, much like early Methodist class meetings did in farm kitchens and barns here in Central Maine. A number of observers have commented this Lent on the trend for Christian college students to give up a technology for Lent. What might move into the space opened up by setting aside a cell phone, a social network, an ipod, even for a few weeks? We're nearing the end of Lent. An enormous hole in the human soul will be blasted wide open once again remembering and re-enacting Holy Friday. The hole will not close with Easter's resurrection. Instead it will become space for life instead of death, a space for grace created by Christ's choice to set aside his power and play the music of vulnerable love. With one week left in Lent, is there something God is calling you to set aside to make space for grace? Don't be afraid to let another know you need encouragement on the journey. I'm so grateful to have been "let go" by a faith community confident enough in the Holy Spirit to send their pastor in mission during Lent. Space for grace for all of us! Coming back, I can "pick up the ducky" with new insight. Get your Lent on, Easter is coming!