Excess

Lent = fasting

Fasting = less

less stuff, less of me, less distraction

This year day two of Lent coincides with Valentine's day - a day associated with excess. Been in the grocery store this week? Scads of balloons, flowers and candy everywhere. An outpouring of love. Or guilt.

My little grandson came home from preschool today with a bag of candy. I gave myself permission to eat some treats today that aren't good for my body because somehow eating junk is connected with being good to yourself in our society, and on this day. So on this second day of our journey to the cross I'm feasting on stuff that doesn't help nourish my soul or my body and it's in direct contradiction to the scripture in my morning devotional:

 Isaiah 58:5-7
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Help me O Lord to look for the opportunities before me and to take action in your name. For truely, less is more when less brings more of you.

40 Days to the Cross

This blog was conceived two years ago as a form of Lenten discipline - both of engagement and abstinence as I stretched to respond to more while pulling back from words and mindless activity.

Lent approaches and my heart doesn't feel ready. My plans are not settled. What shall I "give up", what practice should I hone, what scripture is calling me to focus and study and go deeper?

I've been surrounded as of late with the subject of suffering and patience and trust. One group I participate in is studying Job, a book I just opened is a thoughtful study of trusting God, and a book I've been long awaiting debuts this week and promises to thrust my heart and mind even deeper into the concept of God's presence with us in the battle. (Click here to order this amazing resource - Beautiful Battlefields, by Bo Stern!). So perhaps for Lent 2013 as I journey to the cross I will  not plan but instead will wait, and listen, and rest. My prayer is that my hunger for both God's word and his voice will increase and my desire for aimless pursuits will dimish. 

Lastly I'm grateful for Shrove Tuesday because I forgot to plan a dinner for tomorrow and we have plenty of pancake mix. God is good and faithful to provide!

Tomorrow we begin the journey of 40 steps ....