Hennepin’s theme for Lent this year is "The Stones Cry Out". For weeks before Lent, I had been collecting prayers,poems,writings,and songs with references to stones and rocks. I’ve found in the past that when I begin a project like this, one with a particular theme, that before I know it that theme begins to show up wherever I am, in the most odd and astounding places. For weeks now, the word stone has been showing up in television commercials, on a label my eyes fell on in the grocery store, in the newspaper, you name it.Not only have I found writings about stones, but other people are dropping them off in my mailbox, on my desk.  Certainly those words were always there…..I’m just more "awake" to them now. It is within my intention to be ready and waiting for words about stones to appear.

So I began to wonder……what if I began to set other words or messages with such an intention? What if I began to look for "peace" or "hope" or "kindness" or "joy""? Would that intention draw those words, and in turn those messages, to me?

We have so many negative or manipulative messages that come at us each day. Our culture is designed around messages that sell us on the latest thing that will bring happiness and success, that will bring us rewards of all kinds. Most of these messages are only partially true, some downright lies.

Gandhi said "You must be the peace you want to see in the world." A true statement….difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible, but true. Maybe if we go looking for peace or hope or kindness or joy, we will not only find the words. Maybe we will become the peace, or the hope, or the kindness, or the joy, that the world needs.

I think it is worth a look.