Today, Christians begin the season of Lent with the celebration (is celebration the right word) of Ash Wednesday. This season of the church year is designed as one of repentance where we reflect on why we needed Jesus to go to the cross for us.

This week on SAP we discussed taking advantage of seasons like Advent and Lent to prepare us for Christmas and Easter. One of the most common tools that Christians use for preparation is a devotional series. This year, I wrote a series for Lutheran Hour Ministries that was supposed to take an edgier or alternative look at the Lenten season.

Wanting to push things beyond the standard print medium, we have posted the devotions online in a blog style site with some social networking features in the background. This site will, come Easter, roll over into the Fishbowl. You can check them out at writingsfromthewilderness.com.

It's sort of funny, people who know me often refer to me as being somewhat geeky ... or at least those who aren't geeks do. But, after today, I'm 100% positive that I'm a geek, I'm just a tech aware hack.

For the past two hours I've been occasionally chiming in on little things that need to be done as mfer of Innovating Tomorrow and bobby c of Mustardseed Media take care of all the theming and architecture issues that need to be addressed so the Writings from the Wilderness site is ready to go when Lent begins on February 6. About 90% of what they say is in computer code and makes no sense to me.

Yep, I'm, at best, a hack. But, praise God that there are others who aren't. Moreover, praise God that both mfer and bobby c realize the gifts that they bring to the table, and can also celebrate the gifts that others bring.

Anybody else out there want to analyze some Greek sentence structure?

Writings from the Wilderness are the 2008 Lenten devotions I wrote for Lutheran Hour Ministries. During Lent 2008, you can also discuss the devotions with other readers from around the world through the online version. The community that initiates with the devotions which will roll over into the fshbwl come Easter.

In their promotional material, LHM described the devotions as:

... an open invite to readers who may not yet know the Savior or, if they do, to consider from another perspective the dynamics of a relationship with Him. These reflections allow room to explore the realities of our everyday existence, contemplate how these challenges take place in our life, and consider God's triumphant solution sealed by the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. Readers are challenged to keep a journal of their passage through the wilderness so they can look back and reflect on where they've been - and where they're headed. These gritty and life-tested observations are written in a way that challenge readers and bring them into the faith conversation.

You can also go here to download the devotions in pdf format.

Okay, so I should start of saying that I'm well aware that I'm setting myself up to get hammered here because, for those of you who recognize the name, George Banks, you realize it comes from the movie, Mary Poppins, and, after giving mfer all kinds of grief for bringing up Pollyanna on a recent episode of the Super Average Podcast, well, enough said.

Anyway, Mary Poppins is on my radar because Robbie has decided that it's his favorite movie. At first, we thought he always picked it because it was in the standard issue, monstrously huge, Disney VHS box that really jacks up any storage system. However, when we moved other Disney movies to the forefront, he started picking through all of them until he found Mary Poppins. So, in our home lately, it's been Mary Poppins on a daily basis.

This morning, Robbie was all stuffed up and couldn't sleep so we came out to the living room, I gave him some medicine to help with his stuffy nose, and we popped Mary into the VCR. Luckily he fell asleep in my lap about 15 minutes later and I was able to dose off as well, that is, until I heard chimney sweeps dancing on the roofs of London and singing, "Step in Line". My eyes opened, my head cleared, and I realized that this scene comes right after the whole bank incident that results in the stuffy and emotionally disconnected George Banks to lose his job.

The sweeps dancing scene is followed by a conversation between Burt and George Banks that serves as the impetus for Banks to reconsider his priorities and, by the end of the movie, has him lovin' up on his kids like a daddy should.

So, right after watching this, I do a quick scan through the RSS feeds and run across an "occasional update" by jWinters on being a workaholic. Now, I don't have workaholic issues according to the quote on j's blog, but I do have issues with being a passionate worker (my work is like a hobby that pays so I, all to often, happily put in long hours, be it at home or on the road).

The problem is, being passionate about one area of vocation (work), can often result in the neglect of other vocations (being a husband, dad, etc.). This means that for those of us who love our work, we need to be extra careful to make sure we maintain an even greater passion in our more important vocations. This seems to be what we get from George Banks at the end of Mary Poppins, after all, he ultimately remained a partner at the bank, but he also had his family as a priority.

As I woke up this morning with Robbie sleeping safe and sound in my arms, I felt like I was doing a reasonable job ... but there have been other times where I know I've failed. Moreover, with the launch of the Writings in the Wilderness LHM Lent devotions site (next week), the Fishbowl in a couple months, and the eLife getting ready to go live, I know that the coming months will present many opportunities to be overly passionate at work and negligent at home.

So, how do I try and counter this and remain passionate at home? I try to not do work on Wednesday and just spend the day with Robbie while Anita is at work. Then, when my mom has Robbie on Thursday while Anita works, I try and do some of the housework so Anita isn't stressed when she gets home. I'm also trying, although often failing, to head to bed when Anita does so we can have a few minutes to talk in the evening. Making a point of flirting with Anita throughout the day also seems to keep things balanced. However, I'm curious what others out there are doing so that you look more like the second George Banks than the first? It would be great to hear from workaholics and passionate workers.

Watching a project actually come together is amazing ... and a bit stressful. While there have been times over the past couple years where I was sure that the fish was floating at the top of the bowl, things are now all falling into place for the Fishbowl to become an online reality.

Not only will the LHM Lent devotions (which should have about 200,000 readers) help us create a solid initial pool of people for the online community, but I've got a collection of great regular and occasional authors who are getting ready to provide content (although additional writers would certainly be a bonus if any of you out there are game). Then you add in a logo in development, a board coming together, and other ideas cranking away and things are happening.

The financial thing is still a bit of a pain, but as people are hearing about what we're doing they want to be a part of it and, for many, giving a few bucks (or a few hundred), is their way to help out. To that end, I'm please to announce that it can now be done online by clicking the donate button at the bottom of the Fishbowl placeholder page.

If all this Fishbowl talk is confusing you, here's the concept video: