Tag Archive | sacrifice

BROKEN MEDITATIONS

Feb22

I never dread Lent, never. Each year I look forward to the call to consecration.

Each year I anticipate drawing nearer to God, getting a greater sense of His purpose as I relinquish those things that devour the time I should spend with Him.

Yes, every year I look forward to Lent and every year I look forward to drawing near to God in anticipation of His drawing near to me.

Every year!

And every year I miss the mark, every year.

My greatest challenge, every year, is keeping my focus, keeping my heart turned toward God.

I have not mastered the art of absolute meditation.

You know, those long intense moments of  quiet reading and silent musings in God’s presence as I journal His responses to me.

Nope, no mastery at all.

My moments are more like fragments that pop up randomly during the day, a word that will trigger a thought that will lead me into a prayer or remind me of a scripture.

A billboard ushers me into a place of reflection.

A conversation will remind me of  a moment when I “felt” the presence of God.

A favorite song of worship will propel me, tear stained face and all, into His presence.

No, I have not mastered the art of absolute meditation.

What I have learned is that God also dwells in the fragments as well.

The woman of Canaan in Matthew 15 understood this all too well.

I, too, thank God for the fragments, especially during Lent.

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A TIME TO LET GO

Feb22

Do you do Lent*? If so, what has been the most challenging aspect for you thus far?

*Lent is a season of the Christian Year where Christians focus on simple living, prayer, and fasting in order to grow closer to God.

 

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A Time of Sacrifice

Feb16

Every Lenten season my pastor calls for a period of consecration. It is to be a time of fasting, a giving up of the carnal in order to focus just a little more on the spiritual.

Usually, his suggestion is about the expected, food, media, anything that could be a sacrifice in the secular as we pursue the sacred — for forty days.

This year he included (insert gasp right here) social media!

Wait, what?

Yep, I heard it correctly, social media.

Now, listen, I am not a social media guru, but I do love me some Facebook.

You know, scrolling the pages of friends and sometimes strangers, “listening” in on their conversations, posting a comment if I feel compelled to do so.

I have learned to click “Like” so that my friends will know I am with them in spirit (and so noses won’t get bent out of joint because I never “Like” a post or a picture).

Adding cute emojis so everyone can see how conversant I am in Emoticon!

Give up social media. . .

😞😶😮😳

See, I told you I was conversant!

Still, in spite of the fact that the struggle is beyond real, that voice in my head began to berate my conscience. . .

“Now that would be a sacrifice, forty days of no Facebook!”

Wait a minute, who said forty days. Pastor Paul left it up to me as to how long!

“FORTY DAYS!”

I can hear you; you don’t have to scream.

Forty days? That’s like a wilderness trek, isn’t it?

Oh, yeah, that was forty years.

*************************

Dear Facebook:

How I will miss thee. I will miss thy early morning posts of hilarious memes and cute cat videos. I will miss thy angry threads rife with shattered syntax, butchered grammar and homonyms masquerading as their sound twin.

Oh, how I will miss the glamorous pictures of everyone’s fabulous social lives filled with glitter, glamour and glitz. I will miss the declarations of breakthrough, breakout and just plain broke!

Forty days, O Facebook, forty days! How can I go on without those moments of sheer bliss, videos of grooms and groomsmen dancing before delighted brides. Moments caught by many cameras of mothers of grooms hip hopping across the dance floor with their laughing sons.

I will miss thee when I have nothing to do. I will miss thee when I have too much to do. I will miss thee when I am bored. I will miss thee when I should be doing something else. I will miss the thrill of seeing many comments to my posts. I will miss the responses to pithy comments I have made, especially by strangers.

O, Facebook, I hardly knew ye!!

😳😳😳

Maybe forty days isn’t long enough!