Before I get to my Fat Tuesday meal, which is my “Daily Grat” of the day, let me tell you a little bit about my day.

Today was one of those long, but gratifying ministry days. They’re not all like today, and there are days that are pretty dull and slow, but this was a good one.

It started with a late lunch at the original Kel’s on Forest with a church member who’s got a lot going on in their family right now…a nice pastoral care time.

Then, back to the church to finalize changes to the Ash Wednesday bulletin. While there, two members of our worship team were busily working in the sanctuary on our “Wailing Wall,” which will be a great visual/symbolic feature of all our worship in Lent.

Then, in the afternoon, it was over to a member’s house, to talk about an upcoming “service of inurnment” for her late husband. (Basically, like doing planning for a memorial service…)

Then, it was back to the church for some premarital counseling with a couple at the church.

Then, a weekly meeting with our Leadership Council Chair in the late, late afternoon.

And, finally, a meeting with our Finance Committee, as we continue the tough work of trying to synch our income with our expenses for 2010. It’s a challenging year, financially, but we have such a *good* team working on all this.

So, at the end of they day, I was thinking about the great staff and volunteers pulling together our worship service, the others using their finance skills to help us in that needed area, and the folks I was able to help out, pastorally.

Like I said, not all days are this good. But today was.

And so, at the very end, it dawned on me that it was Fat Tuesday.

Maria and me made a quick stop by Cosco on the way home, and got some food. Among the things we got was dinner….Cosco’s own Chicken Noodle Soup, and some homemade tortillas:

You buy the tortillas raw at Cosco and heat them at home. The soup is something they make there at Cosco and it has HUGE chunks of chicken in it.

So, it’s not exactly the fancy, rich, and perhaps even gluttonous meals others had, but it was PERFECT.

And so, for a delish meal after a long day, I am thankful.

(During this year, my goal is to find something new to be thankful for every single day, and to add that thanksgiving as a blog entry, under the title “My Daily Gratitude.” I started this kick back around Thanksgiving, and it’s already resulted in a favorite new song of mine. The goal of this ongoing spiritual exercise is to see if doing such a thing might inspire even more gratitude within me, and to foster general awareness of life on a deeper level.)