Why the Catholics have it Right (this time)...

Matthew 6:16-18
    ¹⁶ “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ¹⁷ But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, ¹⁸ so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Let me be honest.  This is my first year to participate in Lent.  For me, this season of the year has never been that big-a-deal.  I remember in high school viewing Lent as a thing that "the Catholics" did.  My friends would come into class with some sort of dirt smeared on their foreheads, and then I would know Lent had began.


I mean, I always looked at my Catholic friends and felt sorry for them for all the things they had to do and the particular ways they had to do them.  I was grateful to be a part of a faith with very little "rules and regulations", a faith based on the principles of love and relationship.  And to be honest, I'm still grateful.


But one thing I'm realizing is this: we "evangelicals" have it too easy.  WAY too easy.  We've overcompensated so much in fear of entering into tradition and rituals that we have forgotten that maintaining a relationship with God requires some labor.  We get lost in the privilege of grace and forget that we are called to work out our faith with "fear and trembling".   What I believe that God means by that is this: put a little work into it! 


We tend to put our faith in "cruise-control" mode and neglect the spiritual disciplines that are involved in really experiencing God to the fullest.  


I've been reminded of my tendency to "cruise" through my faith as I've been going through Richard Foster's Book called Celebration of Discipline.  He takes 12 disciplines that have been foundational in the pursuit of our relationship with God and unfolds each one.


Coincidentally, (though there really is no such thing as a coincidence), my chapter on the discipline of Fasting coincides with this season of Lent.  And boy, has it been good.


Through my reading, I've been reminded of my need to work out my faith. 

This fast has been beneficial in so many ways.  But one thing in particular is that it has taught me to clear unnecessary coping mechanisms from my life.  The things I tend to run to when I am stressed, overwhelmed, and bored...are no longer available.

I'm left with me, myself, and my raw emotions.  Nowhere to run.  Nowhere to hide.  Nothing to numb.  I used to say that "oh....I'm just grumpy because I'm hungry....tired....thirsty..." whatever.  But now that these certain things have been purged from my life I come face to face with the reality that I am angry, miserable, and discontent....because of the things I have inside of my heart.  


There are no more excuses.  


In fasting, we come face to face with who we are.  In fasting, the things that have been clogging up our time, attention, and emotion are no longer given the authority to numb us.  In fasting, all of the things we have been trying to hide finally make their way to the surface...


And our gracious God takes His nail-pierced hand, and skims them away.  


This season of Lent is teaching me a lot about myself.  It's allowing me to see myself in a way that I haven't had the ability to see before, when my vision was clouded.  I am sad, silly and ignorant.   But in turn, it's taught me so much about my God.  

He's always known I was this sad, silly, and ignorant...yet, He loves me still.  That is beautiful to me. 


Happy Lent.  


PS. To all my Catholic friends...all my love and respect.  Don't knock the title of this post...it was just to get you reading ;)  See....it worked. 

Laryngitis Shut Me Up:

Psalm 1:1-2
Blessed is the one... whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.
"Only to sit and think of God,
Oh what a joy it is!
To think the thought, to breathe the Name,
Earth has no higher bliss."
--Frederick W. Faber

I woke up on Sunday morning at 4am and realized that I had lost my voice.  It's a strange feeling not being able to talk.  At first, it almost sent me into a bit of a panic realizing that I didn't have the ability to speak any words or make any noises.  Once I finally came to grips with the reality that I wasn't getting my voice back anytime soon, panic turned to irritation. 

You don't realize how much you use your voice in a day, until you no longer have the ability to use it.  Waking up to a smiling baby and not being able to talk to her with words.  Spending the day with my husband and having to use other means to communicate.  Not being able to take or make phone calls.  And since my occupation relies on my voice, not being able to work, either.  It was quite an adjustment, to say the least.

I'm still in the process of trying to get my voice back, and to be completely honest- as major extrovert, I haven't really enjoyed the silence.  But I have learned a thing or two...

My new year's resolution this year was to get more disciplined in the realm of my spiritual life.  I started rereading a book by Richard Foster called the "Celebration of Discipline".  Each month I'm trying to tackle one of the 12 spiritual disciplines as a way to grow and strengthen my relationship with God. 

The first month my focus has been on the discipline of  Christian "meditation".  As Foster explains, the difference between the process of meditation in Eastern religions verses Christianity is this: one is a call to empty the mind in order to "detach" from the world, while the other goes beyond just "detaching" from the world- and into the realm of "attaching" to God. "The detachment from the confusion all around us- in order to have a richer attachment to God".

Meditation is, essentially, the other side to praying.  Praying demands opening our hearts to God in expressive communication- while meditation is the process of allowing Him to open His heart up to us.  It's a chance to free up our minds to hear what He has to say, to savor His words, to experience his Presence.  


For many Christians, me included, this discipline is foreign territory.  So many of us are used to a spiritual relationship with God based on mediation rather than meditation.  A go-between.  Someone who hears from God...and then let's the rest of us know.  It's much easier that way, isn't it?

"Human beings seem to have a perpetual tendency to have somebody else talk to God for them....such an approach saves us from the need to change, for to be in the presence of God is to change.  That is why meditation is so threatening to us.  It boldly calls us to enter into the living presence of God, for ourselves". 

So, at the end of it all, this is what I'm learning through my inability to speak...I'm learning to let God speak.  

Like Samuel, I'm learning that the process of hearing God's voice takes practice...it takes effort.  God can be speaking directly to me and I'm missing it because I haven't taken the time to listen.  And for me, the process of closing my mouth doesn't always come easy.

I want to learn to listen to God by choice rather than by force- not because I have to listen, but because I want to.  Because I love Him.  

As the great thinker Albert the Great says, "The contemplation of the saints is fired by the love of the one contemplated: that is, God".

May God give us the grace to empty our minds, detaching from the things of this world in order to learn to attach ourselves to Him.