Fasting and Feasting in Lent.
FEASTING in Lent? Really?
Isn’t it all about giving things up? Especially the things you like the most ….
Or even just giving up…
Or maybe GIVING UP giving up.
Because we could TAKE UP instead.
Forty days of renewal.
Forty days to go deeper.
Apparently it takes 21 days to confirm a new habit and 42 days to make it a lifestyle.
What new, or re-newing, lifestyle could help your journey with the Lord?
What could you TAKE UP instead of (or as well as) GIVING UP?
Giving up chocolate? And alcohol? Sugar or biscuits? Coffee or tea?
What do you give up for Lent?
They’re all good and helpful, and in giving them up it helps guard us from gluttony and desire and filling our minds with what might be unhelpful things. Reminding us that we are, essentially, dust. Easily trapped into wanting more of what’s not helpful.
I’m TAKING UP a daily devotional for Lent, something I do every year.
This year, it’s THE GRACE FILLED WILDERNESS by Magdalen Smith
Here’s the online blurb:
The Grace-filled Wilderness connects contemporary encounters of wilderness with the traditional themes of Lent and Jesus' journey to the cross. Magdalen Smith invites us to consider a series of subjects that are double-edged - they can bring us life or, if we handle them in the wrong way, drain life from us.
Our appetites, our identity, our work, our sense of freedom and our struggles with anxiety and pain are explored in connection with what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Six full weeks of readings help us to move gradually from wilderness to grace, until, finally, we encounter the miracle, hope and joy of Easter.
'On every page of this Lent book, there's an invitation to journey which is as enticing as it is challenging. I found myself wanting to venture into the wilderness out of choice and not simply circumstance, and the adventure left me seeing, feeling and sharing in God's grace.'
Jo Wells, Bishop of Dorking
