Thank you God, for whatever is going to happen.

I sat in my mindfulness yoga class today reflecting on the experience of Lent. In the Catholic tradition, this is a time to renew our baptismal promises by rooting out sin in our lives and to experience a deeper conversion to a God-ly life through penance. It can be a sorrowful and gloomy 40 days.

Often times we hear that life is about the journey and not the destination. However, during this Lenten journey of self-scrutiny and soul-tidying perhaps we may do ourselves a favor by instead focusing on the destination. And the beautiful miracle of faith, at least for me, is knowing that the destination is far more magical and wonderful than anything I could possibly imagine sitting here in my current soul-dusty state. How many times has God’s answer to a prayer been more inventive and awesome than what you could have ever conceived? So with experience and faith as my security, I have to believe that wherever my soul is on Easter, it’s going to be a life greater and fuller than anything I can conjure.

So yes, the Lenten journey is no easy task. It is the burden of a cross, in fact. But the reward for all that hard work is a life rich in blessings beyond our wildest dreaming. This Lent, I’m going to do the hard work that carries me through the journey but I think I will steady my focus on the destination. And I may not be surprised to find that it has made the journey joyful.