RDM #14 – Some thoughts about lent

Here we have another instalment in the exciting Rainy Day Mondays series.   This is an opportunity for me to pull something out of the archives, either an old post from my blog or another blog, and to re-post it for fresh consideration.

This week we will be doing something slightly different:  This is not strictly from a blog, nor is it strictly an old post.  Some friends of mine started a facebook group called The Lent Challenge, which is going very well.  It is an opportunity to get ideas for performing “totally senseless acts of niceness in the name of the Lord” during Lent.  However even if you are not observing lent this year, it doesn’t mean you can’t join and be nice anyway. :-)

Well one of those good friends, Cherolyn Amery, posted a wonderful comment on the first day.  It was kind of an introduction to lent, and possibly a new way of looking at it for some people. 

Some thoughts about lent…

Most of us know about all about lent: a 40-day period in the church calendar leading up to the big Easter Sunday celebrations. I immediately connect it with giving something up, denying myself some pleasure in a way to grow spiritually. I have tried to "do lent" many times, and honestly, have only succeeded (made it all the way through lent without giving in to my cravings!) a few times. And every time I messed it up, I felt guilty and berated myself for being a spiritual wimp.

I was thinking about lent this weekend and trying to figure out for myself what the whole point of it actually is. If lent is about self-denial, it's not exactly joyous and pleasant. So what's the benefits? My immediate thoughts ran to the idea that somehow it earned us "God brownie points"... that God is impressed when we are especially disciplined and self-denying for Him.

And then I picked up a book (The Ragamuffin Gospel) and idly stumbled across something on a page that hit me smack between the eyes as I was thinking about lent. It said that there is nothing that we can ever do to make God love us more.

I know it's a simple truth. But suddenly I realised that "doing lent" is never going to make God think more of us. It's not going to get us any closer to Heaven. It's not going to make God love us more. All of that is already sorted for all of us, without question or exception. Whether or not we "do lent", God loves us exactly the same.

And yet lent can be a time of change. It won't change how God feels about us, but it has the potential to change us, and grow our relationship with God as we choose to set aside something of the world for 40 days and pursue Him a bit more, or to focus on Him as our deepest need.

The 40 day period is intended to reflect the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness, where He faced and overcame Satan's tempting. But I also like two other 40s in connection to lent: the 40 years of the Israelites travelling to the Promised Land, and the 40 days that Moses spent up on Mount Sinai in the presence of God. My hope for myself and all of you this lent is that we would be incredibly blessed as we journey with God and pursue more of His presence...

Don’t forget to leave a comment in the comment section below, and if you are also taking part in Rainy Day Monday then put a link to your RDM post either in the comment section, or in the Mister Linky Widget (if it is working). 

Weekly Letter Writing Challenge

If you remember I am doing this Weekly Letter Writing Challenge from Learning as they Grow, then....

...You've got a pretty good memory, because it's been so long since I wrote anything even I had almost forgotten. Then today I had an opportunity to write two letters. (Count them - one, two!) So I guess I'm doing a bit of catch-up.

I was going to write an e-mail to two friends of mine, congratulating them for a new programme they are running, when I realised a letter would be much more personal. So I penned a short note this afternoon, and dispatched it with a trusted messenger. (Which is much cheaper and safer than sending them by mail.)

Let's hope they get them sooner than the last time.

Lent

Whatever we give up for Lent, we never give up our sense of humour.

Today is Ash Wednesday, as you may have noticed; and as such Lent is begun. I am going to be trying out a few new things for Lent this year.

One of which is that instead of jsut giving stuff up, I will be taking on a few new "disciplines." Some good friends of mine have started a facebook group called "The Lent Challenge" where they will be answering the question, What would happen if we all committed totally senseless acts of niceness in the name of the Lord? Everyday the members get a suggestion (two actually) for nice ways to bless others, and we try and choose one to do. Sounds cool. Come along and try it out.

Also, I will be running a seperate blog during Lent with the name FISH for Lent. I will be posting one thought a day, every day, about an area where we (I) need to work on getting closer to GOD. Then I will be taking that thought as my challenge for the day. I don't know how that will work out, but come on over and see there as well.

RDM #13 - Day of Ash

It has been about 5 months since I did a Rainy Day Monday post. For those of you who don't know what that it, it means that on Mondays I post an old blog post of my own, or someone elses, that perhaps didn't get as much recognition as it deserved. I have decided to start again, and have been stockpiling a few ideas.

If anyone has any old posts that they would like me to feature, please e-mail me at sharkbait@webmail.co.za. I will be contacting some people for permission to use posts that stuck in my memory, but feel free to volunteer something as well.

To re-open the RDM vaults, I will be posting an entry I did last year for Ash Wednesday. Technically Ash Wednesday is only on... well, Wednesday. But I thought you might want to look at it before then. So just ignore the fact that I refer to Ash Wednesday as today.

Day of Ash

I am sure I am not telling you anything you don't know by saying that today is Ash Wednesday. If I am, then... now you know. Technically known as the day of ash, this is an opportunity for Christians to attend a special church service, which includes the imposition of ashes on their forehead as a sign of penitence, and preparation for lent.

The ashes are made by burning the palm crosses and fronds left over from Palm Sunday last year. That's right; we burn last year's crosses, and keep the ashes to put on our heads this year.

Why?

Well there are many theological explanations for this, but I am just a simple FISH, and so this is how I like to see it.

Palm Sunday was the day the crowds welcomed Jesus in to the city by waving palm branches. Then five days later they cried out for his crucifixion. Five days! The same people; some of them probably still had splinters of palm branches in the hands that they made into fists to shake at Pilate. So wearing the palm cross on my forehead, reminds me of the times that I have acclaimed Jesus as lord of my life, and then turned around and betrayed him with my next breathe. The 40 days when I am figuratively wearing the ash, is 40 days where I need to focus myself on preparing myself for Easter, and my own response. 40 days where I need to try and draw closer to him, and remind myself what he did for me, and my own guilt in making it necessary. 40 days where I need to keep that 'splinter' in my proverbial hand, as a reminder not to be part of the crowd calling for his crucifixion.

Of course, that's just what it means to me.

Day of sack, day of ash.
As we burn last year’s sins,
And wear them on our brow.
So we carry other’s burdens,
and hope to lighten our own.
Day of Ash by DavidSeven

Taking the plunge

So here's the deal. God and I have been chatting this week, and I'm not sure I like what I'm hearing.

Just last week I was thinking vaguely about something I had felt called to do before, but kept saying, "I am not ready yet. When the time comes."

Then I get a message this week that the time might have come. Then another one - The same day. Then another one today.

The only problem is that the whole week I've been praying to GOD to tell me I don't have to do this; that letting me do this would be a big mistake.

He's not really listening to me I don't think, because so far he hasn't let me off the hook yet.

In fact I think he is laughing at my reasons: My nicely formulated and logical reasons, why this would be a really bad idea.

Apparently he has some idea about my reasons being meaningless if He is with me, and how the weaknesses I see are only opportunities for His strength. (I think I read that in a book somewhere.)

What is a FISH to do?

Comic relief

After all those serious and heavy posts this week...

Biblios Hokku - John

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:1

Right from the beginning, the Gospel of John pulls no punches. This is all about telling the world that Jesus was more than just a good man, or even the Messiah. He was GOD! There are no parables told in this gospel, and only seven miracles appear. Instead, it is full of what Jesus said about himself. There are a number of "I AM" statements: "I am the bread of life", "I am the good shepherd", "I am the way, the truth and the life"

JOHN
In the beginning-
There before Heaven or Earth.
This is who I AM.

Go visit all the chapters here.