Lenten Season

In the past I’ve never really observed Lent. Lent is often associated with giving up something such as a certain food or activity. There’s an apparent legalism that tends to turn me off. Each year though when Good Friday and Easter come, I’ve often felt unprepared to really appreciate these holy days in all their fullness.

As we have been talking about in Salt and Light, God gives us spiritual disciplines so we can draw near to Him. If we are unintentional in how we live, our growth would be just hit or miss. So, as we’re in the season of Lent, I wanted to give some thought on what disciplines God may want me to take part in. As the goal is to draw near to God, giving up something could be helpful in that whenever we’re craving to fill our deepest longings with junk food, we can instead have God fill it when we turn to His Word and through prayer. On the other hand, adding on a new habit would be useful as we practice remembering God.

So for me, some of the items on my list include: no caffeine after 3pm (hard for someone who drinks some at dinner time to keep going in the evening…I might just have to go to sleep earlier!), eat fruit everyday (which means I can’t just grab whatever junk is around or in the vending machines), stop myself if I’m mindlessly surfing the web checking out what the Hollywood stars are doing (instead I will try to read- our catalyst group is currently reading “Transforming Grace” by Jerry Bridges- it invites us to ponder the Gospel as the force behind our sanctification.)

My goal is for this season is not to fill myself with junk but with good things, physically and otherwise. When I feel that I lack, I want to learn to turn myself to Christ to fill me. The goal is not to deprive myself of his good gifts (ie a grande peppermint mocha) for its own sake, but instead to discipline myself to remember to put him first before all these other things. I look forward to what I can learn during this time.

What are your thoughts on Lent? Do you have certain habits to help you focus on God during this season?

Countering entropy

“The second law of thermodynamics” states that “the entropy of an isolated system will tend to increase over time.”

We’re often faced with the fact that this world is such an incredible mess. Sometimes no matter how hard we try to work out our plans, things still don’t come together. For example, a repair project we started at work on Monday seemed to be ahead of schedule and going well. The planning was done superbly, and everyone worked like a well-oiled machine. Tuesday morning however, when the mechanics went to start the machine up, 2 parts fused together and therefore making it not functional- an scenario that was not expected. How disappointing! Despite all the efforts in planning well, we were caught by surprise by this failure.

This past Sunday during Second Hour, we meditated on Genesis 1:1-5:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”

Our God is one who creates order out of chaos. In the mess we as a human race have made in this world, He wants to redeem us and make all things right and new again. Thank God we don’t live in an isolated system, but instead He is active and working in this world. While the natural way is for things to go south and head towards chaos, Christ lifts us up and holds the world together.

What is getting you down today? A project that is failing despite all your best efforts? A broken relationship that can’t seem to work? A church ministry that doesn’t seem to have a lot of fruit? God delights in aiding us. I hope we can all ask boldly for Him to intervene to work through us in putting this broken world back together. While His way and timing may sometimes be hard for us to understand, we know that it is His nature to restore wholeness and order in this world.

-JL

New Year’s Resolutions

Last year around this time, I decided I needed to make a couple of New Year’s Resolutions. My plan was to keep it simple so to accommodate my inability to multi-task. I decided to read the Bible more, pray more, and exercise regularly.

I did not fare so well in accomplishing these resolutions, but I did learn a few things.

1) Reading the Bible more- When I open the Bible, basically to anywhere besides maybe the letters, I would be always thinking: what does this mean? (I guess I’m really thinking- how is this relevant to me? I have this problem today that I need some answers to!) I got tired of it pretty fast. Some thoughts came to mind around that time-What if though, I start looking at reading the Bible as this is God’s letter to us to tell us about Himself? What if reading the Bible is a way for us to spend time with God (yes, novel!) and get to know Him more? What if I’m sitting here without an agenda but just to study and admire God?

2) Praying more- I’m a worrywart, so my prayers are usually about whatever is worrying me at the moment. Usually, I keep worrying about it and then pray some more about it (yes, as if it’s how much I bug God that will get Him to give me what I want). What if, though, prayer is really another way by which we get to know God more? We come before Him with all our worries and requests, but we need to also then sit back and listen to what He has to say to us. He is not a genie or even a business partner! He wants us to know Him and have a relationship with Him! Good prayer then need to partner with good Bible reading so we’ll know what He’s saying.

This semester at Salt and Light, we will look together at some of the ways that God has provided for us to become closer to Him. Only as we know Him can we grow to become the people He’s called us to be. In fact, in John 15, Jesus used the image of Him being the vine and us being the branches. The branches will not be able to get their sustenance without the vine! We need to regularly draw from Him to live- let alone live the lives He’s called us to live.

So please come join us this Friday as we look first at the topic of prayer!

(As for the exercise resolution, I’m more at a lost. Although this may help: http://health.discovery.com/national-body-challenge/get-started.html)

JL