Lent, Day 2
Growing up in a non-liturgical church tradition, Lent was only known as a season before Easter when people gave up certain items for self-sacrifice. It took going to college at a Wesleyan school, Houghton College, to learn that lent was more about freeing up time and resources for other spiritual disciplines; you stop watching TV or give up Facebook time so you can read the Bible, you give up going out to eat and use the money to help a neighbor who lost his job, etc.
This year, for the first time, I have finally found something to give up that is giving me more time to devote to spiritual and religious pursuits, to seeking God more fully and closely….
CHURCH
The one thing in recent years that has been devouring much of my time and effort , detouring it from seeking God above and helping my fellow man, that is what I should give up for Lent.
CHURCH
The one place where I have had more strife, experienced more lying and deceit, and had myself slandered and maligned more than any others, that is where I should not go during Lent.
CHURCH
The people who have taken my message of love and compassion, the message I received from Christ to give to the world, the people who have taken that message and said I was preaching a message of malice, hate, anger and vengeance, are the people I should not spend time with during Lent.
I firmly believe in Heb. 10:25. Yet perhaps for a time, it is better that I don’t attend CHURCH. Perhaps I should give it up for Lent. I might draw closer to the Church Universal if I draw further away from the church temporal. Not that the church temporal has given any impression that it wants to be near me anyway.
So there I stand.
At The Rainbow 