I had not planned to go on a media fast for Lent...and apparently my body knew that because I fell into old habits when I decided to forego social media for a week. Given the events of the first day of Lent, another mass shooting incident, calls for nothing less than sack cloth and ashes, mourning and weeping. Yet, I went about fixing breakfast and promptly popped onto a social media site -- didn't even think about the fast until 10 "likes" were clicked.
Still, I did change my plans which had included more of the ideas from Pope Francis (see image at the bottom of the page) and less of the kind which seem more like being put on restriction as in one's teenage years. I had thought to practice putting on goodness (and at the same time taking off that which harms). I had seen too much of sack cloth and ashes for show while the inner man and woman remained unchanged.
I needed a plan that recognized "to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8). I needed that which drew me to the love of Christ and a desire to put on kindness, gratitude, patience, hope, trust, contentment, joy, compassion, and love while at the same time drew me into an awareness of that which needed to be taken off and repented.
I found it in Ezekiel 36: 26 -- "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
I so appreciate the practice of my early morning fellowship. Each week during the season of Lent, as we walk into the church, we take a stone out of the basket (pictured above) and then we sit and converse with God asking to be shown those times during the past week when our hearts have been stony.
As we sing "A New Heart I'll Give to You", we place our stones in the baptismal bowl where the pastor will come with a pitcher of water to pour over the stones.
How often we blame our flesh and punish the flesh when the heart of flesh is not the problem. It's our hearts of stone. For me, during this Lenten season, I may fast -- from food or a food, from social media, from something that normally is just fine to indulge in -- but only if it aids in drawing me into the heart of Jesus where I will be given a heart of flesh in exchange for my heart of stone. Each of the "fast from" items on the left side of the words of Pope Francis are all characteristics of a stony heart. The characteristics on the right are those of a heart of flesh given by God as I draw deeper in relationship with Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Still, I did change my plans which had included more of the ideas from Pope Francis (see image at the bottom of the page) and less of the kind which seem more like being put on restriction as in one's teenage years. I had thought to practice putting on goodness (and at the same time taking off that which harms). I had seen too much of sack cloth and ashes for show while the inner man and woman remained unchanged.
I needed a plan that recognized "to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8). I needed that which drew me to the love of Christ and a desire to put on kindness, gratitude, patience, hope, trust, contentment, joy, compassion, and love while at the same time drew me into an awareness of that which needed to be taken off and repented.
I found it in Ezekiel 36: 26 -- "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh."
I so appreciate the practice of my early morning fellowship. Each week during the season of Lent, as we walk into the church, we take a stone out of the basket (pictured above) and then we sit and converse with God asking to be shown those times during the past week when our hearts have been stony.
As we sing "A New Heart I'll Give to You", we place our stones in the baptismal bowl where the pastor will come with a pitcher of water to pour over the stones.
How often we blame our flesh and punish the flesh when the heart of flesh is not the problem. It's our hearts of stone. For me, during this Lenten season, I may fast -- from food or a food, from social media, from something that normally is just fine to indulge in -- but only if it aids in drawing me into the heart of Jesus where I will be given a heart of flesh in exchange for my heart of stone. Each of the "fast from" items on the left side of the words of Pope Francis are all characteristics of a stony heart. The characteristics on the right are those of a heart of flesh given by God as I draw deeper in relationship with Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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