Lent: Off To Works I Go


I have decided to observe a Lenten fast from snacking between the meals of lunch and dinner. Typically, I come home and try to bribe the beast in the belly by eating a varied collection of foodstuffs. I am not discriminating. Anything goes...down the chute.

I am not trying to gain God's approval for this fast. I am already accepted and redeemed. I just need some of the fruits of  discipline. Or perhaps, vegetables would be a better outcome.

Hunger is really not justified because I have a gut reserve, like a gas tank, with plenty of fuel ready.

So, why am I hungry. Habit, loneliness, boredom? I have no clue. Yesterday I was at Books-A-Million at the former Borders in York--definitely down-scaled but I am glad a bookstore is back in that spot--and drank some coffee while flipping through a photo history of the Beatles. We had Parent/Teacher conferences at school last night and I typically don't drive back to Lancaster. So, get off campus for a spell. It is no fun to be at school from 7:15 am to 9:00 at night.

During the hour and half there at BAM, my stomach was growling. Then, it stopped after an intense period of pain. My stomach is like a spoiled child who cries until he gets what he wants. Well, last night I decided to not give in and instead rode it out with resolve. My stomach eventually stopped crying.

Being in a state of hunger is good spiritually  Jesus said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled" in the Sermon on the Mount. I know I have probably said it in this blog before, but how can we know what this really means unless we are actually hungry for more than just a minute or two before gobbling down some crap laying around? We have to wait to be filled, and that waiting, increases appreciation and rightly centers our appetite.

May we hunger for that which truly satisfies our souls...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shake the Dust: Anis Mojgani

Pslam 90:2 "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." I am not real certain where Anis Mojgani comes from belief-wise. Cats like him tend to be synchrestic spiritually rather than Christ-centered. Yet, this poem captures the spirit of Jesus. What this poem also needs is grace....we shake off sin and mortality and take on Christ and immortality. This is for the fat girls This is for the little brothers For the former prom queen And for the milk crate ball players This is for the school yard wimps And the childhood bullies that tormented them Shake the dust. This is for the benches and the people sitting upon them. This is for the bus drivers driving a million broken hymns And for the men who have to hold down 3 jobs, Simply to hold up their children. For the nighttime schoolers And for the midnight bike riders trying to fly Shake the dust. For the two year olds who cann...
Read more

Thomas Jefferson & Jesus

Image
I was reminded today, by a friend's post on Facebook, that it is Thomas Jefferson's birthday. So, I had a little party on my own of watching two documentaries on him through Netflix Instant. There is much I admire about Jefferson, there is much I dislike. He is polarizing figure. Besides the owning of slaves, the second most odious character flaw was his castration of the New Testament . See my slice of his slicing. Live by the razor, die by the razor. I did learn a cool new word call Amphiboligism which means ambiguity. The arrogance of Jefferson is astounding as if he had a more accurate vantage point of Jesus after 17 centuries than Jesus's own contemporaries and colleagues. In an empirical and scientific sense, he is at a considerable disadvantage in his postulations. When my wife and I visited Monticello on our Honeymoon, the most memorable moment there --besides my downing a can of Pringles all at once (in my own version of the "Pursuit of Happiness" w...
Read more