{photo by yours truly}
I didn't do an update last week, mostly because things seem to be about the same. I avoid sugar like the plague, then wonder if I'm even remotely coming close to discovering the true meaning of this season. It's been an especially difficult couple of weeks as I attend work events and eat out with friends. I would never want to bind this decision on anyone else, nor do I want to wear it like some badge of honor, so I have to be careful when I decline a friend's offer of dessert or eat lunch with coworkers.
This season has been challenging, but I will tell you that the sacrifice I'm making does make me more purposeful not only in what I eat, but in how I go about my every day. When your most basic decisions -- what will I eat for lunch? what can I have as a nighttime snack? -- are affected by a decision made for the Father, it places a new perspective on your day. The most mundane things have been changed for Him, so why wouldn't the rest of your day follow suit?
And, for those of you walking through this season too, tell me: Do you find that what you have given up has become even more appealing to you in these weeks? Maybe I really was a huge snack-eater before, but now? Now I crave sugar-filled snacks all the time. I want ice cream and cookies and donuts and yogurt from the new place down the street. I assure you that prior to Lent, I wasn't that big of a sweet eater, but now? Now, the siren song of sweets is everywhere, and I'm forced to ignore it. This is proof, perhaps, that you always want what it is you just can't have.
Lent has been a struggle, for a variety of reasons, and with only one week left, I wonder if I've done this past month and a half justice. I have to trust that God's grace covers the moments I have failed or treated Lent as more of a health experiment rather than a spiritual exercise. I have plans for this body of mine post-Lent, plans that may put some of these Lenten rituals into my daily routine. If nothing else, maybe these weeks have reminded me to care for the body God has given me, to treasure what He treasures. And maybe, just maybe, that's enough.
2 comments:
I think sometimes giving up things like these has effects that we don't even realize.
I definitely know what you mean about finding things even more appealing. When I gave up sweets for Lent in the past, I would think about them constantly. What was funny was that by the time Easter came around, it actually took a little while before it all tasted really good to me again.
I gave up Facebook for lent...it's been pretty difficult not going to lie. And it's so true, there are times I've had to stop and remember that this season isn't just about not going on facebook, it's about God, and what I'm doing with that time I used to sit on fb.
great post :)
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