Lent Adventure - Day 15

It finally happened.  I failed.  The worst part is that it wasn't really my fault.  Here is how it all went down.

My wife saw a recipe on Rachael Ray for this chicken gumbo that also included a special type of sausage.  I was not concerned about the meal, because it was supposed to be chicken based and most sausage of that type is pork based.  I ate two plates, then packed some up for lunch the next day.

The next morning I was getting ready to leave and saw the package that the sausage came in.  There it was, about 5 ingredients in; "beef".  So there was not a lot of beef, but there was still red meat in there. 

Now, at this point I have two choices.  Eat the stuff for lunch as well and give up on the whole red meat thing, or start again.  I started again.  I gave JR (the student minister) my gumbo and he gave me some left over chicken dish.  For the meal at church that night they had beef stew.  I had salad (even the bologna has some beef in it).

There are going to be times in our life when we will fail God, either intentionally or unintentionally.  Leviticus tells us that we are guilty whether we know it or not (this will be the theme of Sunday's message).  The issue is not our failure, but our response to our failure.  Do we give up, or start fresh knowing that God's mercies are new every morning. 

If you have failed or fallen short of you Lent goals, start over. Don't let yourself off the hood that easily.  Apologize to God and get going again.

Lent Adventure - Day 10

Last night the family and I went to Trader Joe's in Northbrook and my wife wanted me to try this amazing Jewish deli named Max and Benny's.  The place was unbelievable, but there was one major problem.  When I go to a Jewish deli, there is only one thing I want to order; the Reuben.  I had been told that it was out of this world there, and was all set to order it when I remembered that the main ingredient was corned BEEF.  (This red meat thing is begining to be more of a challenge than I had originally thought.)  I had not considered that at all while planning to order since it was a Reuben sandwich, not a corned beef sandwich.

Often those things that trip us up in our journey are not labeled, "sin".  There is the old phrase, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."  It is shockingly true for many of us. 

What are those sins that seem to show up in your life over and over?  What are the ones that seem to just sneak up on you without paying attention, or the ones that you try to justify away?

I almost asked my wife for a bite of her sadwich thinking that it would only be one bite, even if it was beef, because we would not be able to come back for quite a while.  That is when it dawned on me, that is the point.  Sacrifice that does not require sacrifice is not much of a sacrifice.

Continue to keep watch and pray, not just for those items you are trying to give up for Lent, but for all of your sins and those things that keep you from being fully engaged with God.

Lent Adventure- Day 7

One week down, only 33 days to go. 

Sometimes people get the false notion that when we make sacrifices and offerings to God that our life will go easier and God will give us more in return.  There are times when that holds true, but there are other times when the exact opposite happens.  Sometimes we find that our sacrifices are returned with requests for even more. 

Perhaps that you have found God asking more from you than you had planned to give.  Perhaps you have found that in the darkness of Lent, things have gotten darker.

If that is what you have found, remember John the Baptist who spent his whole life telling people to get right with God and follow the one to come after him; Jesus.  Then he ends up in a Roman prison questioning his own teachings by sending some of his followers to ask Jesus if he really was the Messiah.

Soon after, John was beheaded even after all he gave.

A question that is worth asking yourself sometimes is whether or not you would serve God even if the rest of you life was filled with darkness or do you just follow and serve Him when He sends you sunshine and rainbows.

Lent Adventure - Day 6

A few days ago I mentioned that the issue of red meat was not proving to be that great of a challenge throughout this process.  I was wrong.

On Saturday Misty, the kids and I were going to get some lunch together using the multiple free meal coupons we had recently received.  One was for a free sandwich from Arby's, one was for a free sandwich from Quiznos and one was for a free personal pizza from Pizza Hut.

I passed on the Arby's without even thinking about the fact that it had to be a roast BEEF sandwich, and opted for the Quiznos sub instead.  Being in a hurry, I told my wife to order me the prime rib cheese steak sanwich as I took Elijah over to Pizza Hut to order our pizza there.

When Misty arrived it was with a different sandwich because the coupon was not good on the prime rib.  I was disappointed at first, until I realized that the prime rib would have been beef.

On Monday I started getting my lunch ready to bring to church and was disappointed when I could not find the ground beef to go in my taco.  My wife, knowing I was not supposed to have it, kindly put it in the freezer the night before.

Then today I went to Qdoba for lunch and almost ordered the steak tacos, since I couldn't order the ground beef, seeing as how ground beef was red meat.  Right before I ordered it I was reminded of where steak came from.

While this may all sound trivial, but what I see is how God, my wife and friends have helped me during this journey to keep me pure from those things that I am striving to avoid.

This holds true in life as well.  Who have you surrounded yourself with to help keep you pure?  When have you thanked God for watching out for you, when you were not watching otu for yourself?

Lent Adventure - Day 5

As a quick reminder, the reason that today is day 5 and not day 6 is because Sundays are not traditionally part of the Lent 40 days calendar.

While I have regularly talked about Lent beginning on Ash Wednesday (last week), that is not true across the board. 

For the Eastern Orthodox churches, Lent begins today and it works a little differently.  They tend to build into Easter.  It is also important to recognize that their Easter is not always the same day as ours.  I believe that their Easter will fall on the 19th of April this year, which is one week after ours. 

Lent for them actually has a lead up time of 4 weeks.  It is worth noting that Orthodox don't eat red meat, fish or dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year.  But at the start of the four week lead in period they can eat anything on any day. 

The second week is a week to confess their sins to a priest or they are not allowed to have communion on Pascha (their term for Easter).

The third week is "Meatfare Sunday".  This is the last day that you can eat red meat during Lent as a way of representing the ability to resist the temptations of the flesh.

The fourth week is "Cheesefare Sunday."  This is the last day that you can eat any dairy throughout all of Lent, along with abstaining from fish, wine and olive oil. Along with this is a special worship service where everyone in the room has to forgive every other person face-to-face and they are all forgiven by the priest as a way of representing forgiveness from God.  This is usually a very powerful service.

Today begins their lent with "Clean Monday" or "Bright Monday".  All of the people will spend time completely cleaning their home as a way of purifying themselves and ridding their home of evil.  Some believe that this was part of where "spring cleaning" came from.

I share all of this with you so that you can see that everyone remembers this time a little differently, but the ultimate point is to draw near to God during this time.  Maybe there is something that you can take away from their practices that will help you draw near as well.

Lent Adventure - Sunday

I love Sundays during Lent.  Since none of the things that I am sacrificing for Lent are really all that bad in moderation, I take Sundays off from the fast.  This is traditional for much of the church as a way of recognizing that Sundays are always days of resurrection and new life, so we don't want to live in deprivation on those days. 

I did not get to have any coffee, but I did watch a little bit of the golf game (even though I missed out on Tiger Woods' rounds earlier in the week).  I was also able to have some beef tacos. 

Although I do want to share a few things I learned last year.  Even though I take Sunday's off, it is still a good idea to go with moderation.  Last year I would leave the house after the kids were napping on Sunday afternoons to get a cup of coffee.  The mistake I made was having three 20 oz. cups at Starbucks in about an hour and a half.  That's right, 60 oz. (nearly a half gallon) in 90 minutes.  That was an error in judgment.

So if you are going to enjoy the freedom of Christ on Sundays, take it from a very jittery me, go easy.