Lenten Update #2

Another week done and I’m still hanging tight on the food fasts. I’ve made a bunch of veggie dishes I didn’t even knew existed until… well, I made them. Including that eggplant/carrot cornbread caserole up there, which turned out to be a surprise hit. When I finally did some Wii time (my first real time since Jos’ death), I weighed myself expecting to have put on five pounds. Instead, I loss two. I’m considering making this diet permanent.

Unfortunately, my devotional time has been spotty. Like every other day. It’s funny how it’s been easier to cut out whole swaths of food groups from my diet then to add more prayer and Bible time in my schedule.

I did some reading this morning, though, contemplating on death. From the Forward Day By Day devotional:

Jeremiah 5:20-31. But what will you do when the end comes?

 

It is sad, even disappointing, when I learn a family has decided not to conduct a memorial service for a deceased loved one. But it seems to be the trend of our time. Why? My observation has been that when the bereaved are confronted by loss, their mortality is accentuated. Few relish thinking about their own demise. However, without embracing the reality of our end, we rarely can live life to the fullest. Thus, we hear Jeremiah’s poignant question.

 

The Twenty-third Psalm is most often recited in times of death. But it is Psalm 27 that could be our best response to Jeremiah’s question. For it is in this psalm we hear, “Be strong, and he shall comfort your heart; wait patiently for the LORD.”

 

The Lenten season is a long, slow walk evoking feelings of darkness, despair, and loneliness. We are confronted with images that can appall us and make us look away. But it is in the willingness to stay on this difficult trail that we gain strength for life. It is by this new strength that we are comforted and have the will to wait patiently for God. Therein, I pray, lies the answer. In the end, by God’s strength, I will wait patiently.

A poignant reflection.