Big Day Tomorrow

Wait - where did January go? It seems we haven't met here in over a month. It must be because we are all busy enjoying this winter beauty. I mean, come on. Or we've been sick. Or busy. Oh well, it doesn't matter now - we're back together!

Today I'm getting excited about tomorrow. No, not for Valentine's Day. I mean red is usually my favorite color and I love chocolate, but it's not my favorite holiday. Not by a long shot.

Lent, the 40 Day adventure leading up to Easter begins Wednesday. Seems early to be planning for Easter, but I don't write the calendar. I'm just a player who loves the sacred holidays more and more as I get older and learn more about Jesus.

As I read and study up more on these holidays and celebrating them appropriately and with increasing enthusiasm, I learn something new every year. It seems "many Christians are rediscovering fasting along with other long-neglected disciplines that can deepen and enrich" our faith."

"Christian fasting is the voluntary denial of something for a specific period of time for a specific purpose...a restriction that creates space for God....There is no Lent without fasting."

After the abundance of celebrating Christmas, we plunge into a fasting, a stripping, a thinning of self (and some of its desires) to make room for God. "We abstain and resist and refocus our attention on God, who is our life."

I love this.
I need this.
I dread it some too (because I am weak).
But I always benefit.

Last Spring I fasted from social media. I argued with God in prayer for a full 20 minutes I think. He won. But really I won. Talk about created space that God could fill with Himself. Win Win!

Scott and I often embark on the same fast. This year will be no different. Food fasts, while most Biblical, aren't "hard" enough now that we have completed Daniel fasts and others.

The point is to create a gap, a hunger, a hole that God can fill anew and our affections will be turned toward Him instead, directing our thoughts to linger on Jesus' great sacrifice of love.

Desserts - nope.
Bread - nope.
Eating out - do you know where we live?
Having just finished another Whole 30, none of these feel like enough. We just did it and wasn't for a sacred reason.

What, Lord? What do you think?
Oh.
I'm not so sure about that.
I mean, it's still winter.
It's cold up here in the mountains for many more weeks.
What will I hold every morning?
The smell!
40 days?!?!
It's going to hurt.
Oh right. That's the point.
Scott says yes. Geez, that guy.

So now I'm going to indulge one last time before tomorrow.

Lest you think I engage begrudgingly, oh no. This is my pleasure. My privilege. And after the headache subsides and I beat my body into submission, God will have good things for me,
 and I. Want. Them. More. Than. I. Want. Coffee.

As always, we've twisted our kids' arms, I mean, invited our adult children to join us here. I'm amazed at what came through in the family text last night and today.

Sports on tv.
Netflix.
Social media.

They get it. Transformation is on the horizon. Just like Easter is.

"When we fast during Lent, we identify with Jesus in a tangible way. The weeks slowly build in intensity. The more that we can enter into His sufferings and death in that final, holy week, the more we will know both our own great sin and need and God's great goodness and love."

Don't forget to read and meditate on the Bible. This is how He reveals Himself. Quiet yourself in the presence of God in order to take an honest look at yourself. This can be unflattering and discouraging, but take heart, "we confess to God who loves us and who wants to transform us, who describes Himself as gracious, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment."

You have nothing to fear.
He's not mad at you.
He is for you.
He wants you.
He sent His Son to free you from sin's grip and give you hope.
One day He'll send Him back again to get us.

We will rise with Him.
Resurrection Day indeed.

This is the stuff of sacred holidays.
Don't cheat yourself and make it about the bunny.
There is so much more.



 *all quotes from Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross