So Ash Wednesday was this past Wednesday, it snuck up on me. I was thinking of giving up diet coke again which I did last year and in reality is the only thing that without it i truly suffer. It has been a week of soul searching. I need caffiene and all the other options come with calories and fat so I get grumpy thinking about gaining back any of the weight I took off through weight watchers because my non caloried caffienated option is gone until Easter. And to be honest, I am no good to be around in the middle of a 12 hour shift if I am uncaffienated.
And when it comes to suffering through Lent, I realized my heart really wasn't into it. But then again whose heart is ever really into suffering? I feel far from God and that is all my fault. We haven't been able to get to church in a few weeks due to weekends away and work. I really need to spend more time in the Word and in prayer. And suffering from lack of diet coke is not going to make me feel any closer to Jesus on Easter than I feel right now. I need to do something proactive.
So I am having a proactive Lent this year. I am re-reading Relieving the Passion by Walter Wangerin and focusing on finding the passion I used to have for the Word and prayer. This proactive Lent may actually be harder than 40+ days without diet coke, we'll see.
And, as the ever helpful spiritual husband I have :-), Bill has started to call diet coke "that devil juice" because he says that is how God thinks of it now that I have taken back my original Lenten fast. Good thing Bill has nothing to do with my salvation.
4 comments:
Kate,
Despite my agreeing with Bill about the "devil juice" being horrible for you...I agree with the you being caffienated part:0)
Also, my 88 year old grandfather has always participated in a "proactive" lent. He taught us early on (any you may not agree) that giving something up, that you know you will go right back to, isn't really suffering it's just inconvenient. But giving up something such as time or working toward something, like reading the book (which by the way Eric reads the same one every year) is something that you can't take back and will surely affect you and possibly others for eternity. Hope you find it encouraging! Much love to you! Erica
katie, i think the devil juice is a fast i would not want to see you try more than once, anyhow. :) as for your proactive lent, i think that's a lovely way to respond to jesus. -a
Katie, I am not sure if you remember me, but I am friends with Alina. Stumbled across a link to your blog somewhere and started reading! Good stuff, girl. I also am a do something positive kind of girl with lent (instead of taking something away). My favorite thing I did one year was I had a 3 hour retreat of silence every week in a coffee shop early on Sunday mornings while my husband set up sound for the service. It was such a nurturing thing for my soul. Now that I have a 2 year old, that sort of thing really isn't possible. So I look for new ways to nurture my soul. Bless you.
You're TAGGED. Go ahead and read my blog for the details!
Can't wait to hear your random-ness. As if the title 'destination dagobah' isn't clue enough to how random you are...
Post a Comment