is today.
It's the begining of Lent, a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a time for reflection and taking stock, for looking at the depth of one's own sin, and turning away from them. A time for learning what it means to follow Christ.. a time for actually going about changing one's ways to be more as Christ would have them be.
In Lent, it's traditional to give up (or 'fast from') something(s) that we do a lot of and that we find pleasure in. This giving up or fasting is done:
- as a discipline for learning self-control, to free our minds from the chase after material things, to tell ourselves 'no' and make it stick;
- to identify with Christ's sufferings, and remember what the true pleasures are for followers of Christ;
- as an act of sorrow over our wrongdoings and our state of sin.
Lately, Chaz has lots of bad news. Lots of people were hurting and are in need of prayers. The many prayers requesting threads show that we realize when we can't do anything else, we can still pray for one another... and that may be the very BEST thing we can do for each other under the circumstances. It's reaffirming to me that prayers can bring great comfort and hope to a person in time of desperation.
So, may I propose that for the next 40 days, lets each of us give up something in order to pray for each other... it doesn't have to be big.. it can be an urge to say something hurtful to a fellow human beings, or one cigarette less a day, or half an hour sitting in front of a T.V. or computer, or the tendency to argue with a spouse over anything and everything, etc..
May we learn to love one another as we do ourselves, and treat each other as we wanted to be treated.
It's the begining of Lent, a season of soul-searching and repentance. It is a time for reflection and taking stock, for looking at the depth of one's own sin, and turning away from them. A time for learning what it means to follow Christ.. a time for actually going about changing one's ways to be more as Christ would have them be.
In Lent, it's traditional to give up (or 'fast from') something(s) that we do a lot of and that we find pleasure in. This giving up or fasting is done:
- as a discipline for learning self-control, to free our minds from the chase after material things, to tell ourselves 'no' and make it stick;
- to identify with Christ's sufferings, and remember what the true pleasures are for followers of Christ;
- as an act of sorrow over our wrongdoings and our state of sin.
Lately, Chaz has lots of bad news. Lots of people were hurting and are in need of prayers. The many prayers requesting threads show that we realize when we can't do anything else, we can still pray for one another... and that may be the very BEST thing we can do for each other under the circumstances. It's reaffirming to me that prayers can bring great comfort and hope to a person in time of desperation.
So, may I propose that for the next 40 days, lets each of us give up something in order to pray for each other... it doesn't have to be big.. it can be an urge to say something hurtful to a fellow human beings, or one cigarette less a day, or half an hour sitting in front of a T.V. or computer, or the tendency to argue with a spouse over anything and everything, etc..
May we learn to love one another as we do ourselves, and treat each other as we wanted to be treated.
