Just Thinking ...
Ash Wednesday and the First Sunday in Lent have come and gone. Time is moving swiftly, and soon we will be at the foot of the cross wondering how and why. Don't let the time rush to an empty tomb without some deep and life-changing time on the journey to the cross.
The journey began last Wednesday. It was a full day with meetings (meetings, yes, that seems to be all I do these days) and unpleasant weather. I confess to you that I did not get to an Ash Wednesday service because of this combination. But, fear not, I began my Lenten journey by self-examination and by taking on a spiritual discipline. I began to consider my health, physcially, emotionally, and spiritually.
With regards to physcial health, I vowed to eat better and to watch my intake. For lunch I ate a baked potato with some mild toppings and drank water. After I got home, I took a mile walk in the rain. When I got home, my sugar levels crashed. That made for a fun evening. I need to remember to take into account that I'm hypoglysemic and that I need more than a potato. Lesson learned ... maybe.
Did I mention that I'm attending a lot of meetings? With that in mind, I'm trying to also care for my emotional health, so that I might be the best I can be for the kingdom. I try to laugh and look for humor. (Yes, even at the meetings and other unlikely places.) It was difficult to laugh as Sally was sharing her woes about house-hunting. Perhaps there are times when it is not so good to laugh, right?
Spiritual health is the most important for me, and it's the one I need to give the most attention to during these 40 days. I have taken to praying during my drive on 85. I don't listen to the 70s on radio, but instead I allow the silence to be a time in which to offer up my prayers for others and to listen, if possible. No, I don't close my eyes! Yesterday as I was driving, my prayers were interupted by thoughts of things I needed to handle at the meetings I was heading to attend. There are lots of things that interupt. I confess I have a crazy mind-train running in my head, and it needs to be derailed.
One day into Lent and already I was met with hinderenaces and road blocks. It would be so easy to give up, to go eat at Mary Mac's, to drown my sorrows of so many meetings at Steak and Shake, and to crank up the tunes on my radio. But, no I stand up, dust off the failures of yesterday, and try again on this the second day of Lent. (I'm writing this on Thursday, March 2).
No one said giving up or taking on was easy. It is for me, too, that Paul said, "I'm running the race to win, so I must disapline the body and the soul." Yes, I'm going to fail some, but I will also grow some. In the end, as I face the empty cross and tomb, I hope to be a person who is closer to my Savior who ran the race and won that race for you and for me.
We've got 35 more days, my friends. Let's live each one to the fullest in Christ so that we can stand on Easter Sunday as the redeemed and beloved of Christ and truly shout the words of that glorious day.
I'm just thinking is all,
Dana