Today’s Readings: Psalm 51:1-17; Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Featured Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10. If you were to ask me “What product captures the essence of contemporary American values?”, I would have an answer for you right away. Diet pills. “Diet pills?!” you’d likely respond. “Why diet pills?” Well, they represent an attempt by American manufacturers to convince the American public that you can take a challenging goal like losing weight and make it virtually painless. That’s the essence of our contemporary American values – we want to acquire things of deep value without investing any energy; hence, the advent of diet pills. People who are serious about pursuing that goal know, however, that lasting weight loss entails so much more than simply taking a pill. Lasting weight loss entails things making the conscience decision to eat right and seek out regular forms of exercise. Both of those things are contingent upon developing discipline – the real key to weight loss. No pill can give you that. I wish I could say that our desire to acquire valuable things with minimal effort was restricted to things like weight loss, but it isn’t. Many of us fight the same tendency when it comes to our spiritual lives. We want the maximum spiritual returns (i.e. peace & joy) for minimal input. Many of us spend more time either watching television or exercising than we would ever dream of putting into our spiritual lives through things like prayer/meditation, daily devotional time, service, etc. Paul picked up on this when he wrote to the Corinthians in today’s passage and said: “Please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us… now is the right time to listen… don’t put it off!” In other words, start giving your spiritual life the attention it deserves. Right now!!! Today – this Ash Wednesday – we have the perfect opportunity to follow Paul’s advice and start devoting adequate time and energy to our spiritual lives. Whether you express your desire to do this through an act of sacrifice (i.e. giving something up for the 40 days of Lent) or through an act of addition (i.e. adding a spiritual discipline into your routine), what matters is that you do something. Whether one is trying to lose weight or grow spiritually there’s no way getting around one simple truth: it takes discipline. May you find that during these days of Lent. Til next time…
Featured Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10. If you were to ask me “What product captures the essence of contemporary American values?”, I would have an answer for you right away. Diet pills. “Diet pills?!” you’d likely respond. “Why diet pills?” Well, they represent an attempt by American manufacturers to convince the American public that you can take a challenging goal like losing weight and make it virtually painless. That’s the essence of our contemporary American values – we want to acquire things of deep value without investing any energy; hence, the advent of diet pills. People who are serious about pursuing that goal know, however, that lasting weight loss entails so much more than simply taking a pill. Lasting weight loss entails things making the conscience decision to eat right and seek out regular forms of exercise. Both of those things are contingent upon developing discipline – the real key to weight loss. No pill can give you that. I wish I could say that our desire to acquire valuable things with minimal effort was restricted to things like weight loss, but it isn’t. Many of us fight the same tendency when it comes to our spiritual lives. We want the maximum spiritual returns (i.e. peace & joy) for minimal input. Many of us spend more time either watching television or exercising than we would ever dream of putting into our spiritual lives through things like prayer/meditation, daily devotional time, service, etc. Paul picked up on this when he wrote to the Corinthians in today’s passage and said: “Please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us… now is the right time to listen… don’t put it off!” In other words, start giving your spiritual life the attention it deserves. Right now!!! Today – this Ash Wednesday – we have the perfect opportunity to follow Paul’s advice and start devoting adequate time and energy to our spiritual lives. Whether you express your desire to do this through an act of sacrifice (i.e. giving something up for the 40 days of Lent) or through an act of addition (i.e. adding a spiritual discipline into your routine), what matters is that you do something. Whether one is trying to lose weight or grow spiritually there’s no way getting around one simple truth: it takes discipline. May you find that during these days of Lent. Til next time…
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