Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. One of my favorite days on the liturgical calendar. I plan to attend a wonderfully solemn church service Wednesday night, receive the ash cross on my forehead, and kick off my as-yet-determined Lenten “give up” fast.

Lent is a great, ancient Christian tradition, and a favorite of any Christian who likes to dabble in the monastic custom of “going without” for the sake of Christ.

But as much as self-denial and ascetic commitment can be good, virtuous endeavors, they can easily become just another way to puff oneself up, to proudly show the world just how capably you have given up certain pleasures in pursuit of Christ. “Look what I’m giving up for Lent! … Look at what a martyr I am! Aren’t I great?”

The Super Bowl just happened. This is really the only time of the year when we all collectively talk, however briefly, about commercials. So let’s get to that task. Here are my quick thoughts after watching the game and all of its advertising extravagance.

Best Overall Ad: Google — “Parisian Love.” Google is an outsider to TV advertising, but they showed everyone else how it’s done with this beautiful ad. It was simple, told a great story, and reinforced why Google is probably the most important brand of my generation. We literally live our lives by it.

Traveling changes one’s life. I’m sure anyone who has done much of it–especially abroad–would agree. There’s something about the displacement and discomfort of being in an alien place, coupled with the awesomeness of seeing things you’ve never seen before and blowing open the doors of any prior conceptions of “what this world is.” Travel enlarges one’s view of existence.

When I traveled to Southeast Asia the summer after my first year of college (my first experience overseas), I first encountered the life-changing potential of the experience of being abroad. Subsequent trips to Europe and Japan confirmed what I suspected–that there is an unmistakably spiritual aspect to travel.  It’s good for the soul. It brings you closer to God. In my case, it enhanced my faith.

Today was the deadline for the 5,777 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to turn in their completed nominations ballots for the 2010 awards. The resulting nominations will be announced February 2 and the ceremony will be March 7.

I’m sure I’ll be mostly disappointed when the nominations are actually announced (and Avatar gets 9 nominations), so I’ll take this opportunity to put forth the nominations I’d like to see, if I could have my way:

Best Picture
Summer Hours
The White Ribbon
Inglourious Basterds
The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man
Invictus
The Last Station
The Road
Up
Bright Star

One of the most devastating and tragic earthquakes of my lifetime hit the already downtrodden nation of Haiti on Tuesday. It hurts my heart to think about the horror of such a calamity, which destroyed the capital city and killed tens of thousands of people.

But in the wake of this tragedy of unimaginable scope, everyone seems to be talking about something else… Pat Robertson.

Quips about Robertson and his ridiculous comments have been lighting up Twitter and Facebook. He’s been a top trending topic for the last 2 days. And everyone seems to be getting quite a kick out of joining in the Robertson slam-fest. Of the many tweets I’ve seen, here’s just a sampling:

• “Pat Robertson is kinda like that senile old uncle at your family reunion. He said what? Oh, that’s just crazy Uncle Pat. Pay no attention.”
• “Why do so many people in Haiti have to die while Pat Robertson lives?”
• “Pat Robertson, bringing shame to the name of Christ for 50 years.”
• “I wonder what Pat Robertson blames for the NBC late night debacle.”
• “Pat talks about the Devil like he’s had business meetings with him… or the two play racket ball…”
• “Just in case you needed more proof that Pat Robertson doesn’t speak for Christians, here you go…”
• “Behold Pat Robertson, the unintended consequence of the first amendment.”