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Praying about the flow of time: Why Lent matters

Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 25 2025

Do you know the word “chiaroscuro”? It came to English from Italian 300 years ago. In Italian, it means light-dark. For visual artists and those who love visual art, chiaroscuro matters a lot. Dark sections of a painting make the light places stand out. Take a look at the painting by my beloved husband, Dave, that illustrates this post. The painting would lose its punch without the dark sections. All paintings need contrast, even ones that aren’t as dramatic as the one I chose for this post.

I have come to believe that the concept of chiaroscuro can help us look at...

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Praying about the flow of time: The equinox

Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 18 2025

Imagine you are in the wilderness with no pen, pencil, paper, or electronic devices. In this imaginary scenario, you have plenty of food, so don’t worry about that. You’re in the wilderness for a very long time. Months and years flow by. How would you mark the passage of time? Maybe you would use a rock to scratch a line on a stick each day.

As time passes, you would be increasingly aware of nature’s way of marking time. You would see the moon change from a sliver to half to full and then back again. You would notice that the rising...

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Praying about the flow of time: An unusual option for Lent

Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 11 2025

I’m listening carefully to someone I find a bit challenging. As I try to listen well, I’m bringing to mind various listening skills I’ve learned over the years. The person describes something from their life that I find both interesting and confusing. I try to pick up something from their description that I can follow up on. I decide to ask an open-ended question that will enable them to go in whatever direction they choose. They continue to talk, and I try to give them eye contact. I use those small sounds that help people know we’re listening: “hmm,” “yeah,” and...

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Praying about the flow of time: Ash Wednesday

Lynne Baab • Tuesday March 4 2025

As a child, I enjoyed the tactile nature of the Ash Wednesday service: walking up the aisle to the front of the church, hearing the words “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” feeling the minister’s hand marking a cross with ashes on my forehead, and then seeing the ash mark on my forehead the next time I looked in a mirror. In my elementary school years, my family often went to an Ash Wednesday service in the early morning. I proudly wore the ashes on my forehead to school that day. Looking back, I am truly...

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