after tony the beat poet says something profound, donald miller says, it was obvious that something beautiful and true had hit the table with a thud (118).
that's how i feel about orthodoxy with a capital o. and, despite the fact that sometimes the thud is so loud that i pull away, i'm slowly heading back in that direction.
monday is the first day of great lent. after a year of having people question my motives all over the place, it's nice to know i do it, too: the lenten fast means my eating will change drastically for the next forty days or so. i know the real reason i'm doing this, but it doesn't take a genius to realize that there'll be health benefits in the process. how do i keep that from entering into the equation? it sucks that sometimes there are selfish reasons to do good things.
so, i've been thinking: maybe the first thing i'm supposed to learn is that only God can sanctify my will.
and maybe the second thing is that this - not just lent, but life itself - isn't about self-control or self-talk. it's about submission.
2 comments:
I've often wondered about that as well - "I'm going to give up buying coffee for Lent..it'll save me soooo much money!" It's hard to avoid thinking that way.
Lent understood as self-denial, in which we sacrifice something for ourselves in order to give to those less fortunate, has always intrigued me. Is that following in the true spirit of Lent?
well, it's closer to the true spirit of lent than not doing anything . . . but i think the point (historically) has been to prepare ourselves for participating with Christ in His death and resurrection.
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