By Alli Bauck
This week felt like one step forward, two steps back.
As Spring makes its anticipated arrival to the Kansas City area, the forecast last week was a gloomy and chilly reminder that Winter still has dominion! There was a span of days that were especially demotivating for any outdoor activities.
On top of that, our plans were put on hold by a 24-hour bug that affected all my kiddos over the weekend.
(I definitely exercised more napping than walking; resting in the grace space!)
I only went on my Lenten walk twice—and I did not makeup my missed practice on Saturday (like I had planned).
However, while vacuuming and disinfecting my house on Monday, I caught up on all the daily Gospel podcasts I had neglected over the weekend. I also shared a few favorite past episodes of podcasts during a much-needed crafting session with my mom on Saturday.
On one of the days I did practice my #Lentenwalk, the Gospel readings covered many of Jesus’ parables. It just so happened that a friend had shared Conrad Gempf’s Jesus Asked podcast, which features two episodes relating to why Jesus used parables during his earthly ministry. Perfect timing!
Even though I did not get in as many (soggy) steps or get out into the fresh (frigid) air as much this week, Jesus is still faithful. As Annie F. Downs likes to say: “You don’t have to be in the Gospels every day to be changed; but every day that you are in the Gospels will change you.”
I’ll take that encouragement with me into this next week of my Lenten practice.


