“Trying” to fast?

Dear Kindred in the Spirit,

I’m wondering how your Lent is going? At the store, at the gym, around the water cooler, I’ve been in conversations about the changes we’ve taken on for this 40 day period of preparation.
Several people are doing a carbon fast–making changes to home and workplace to tread more lightly on the earth. Another is is walking to work once a week (I hope it wasn’t Thursday). One friend is “fasting” once a week from speaking– the last time I heard from her she was trying to figure out the logistics of making that happen. A couple of our members have taken on to help a homeowner in Monson rebuild this Lent (if you’d like to help, contact Lois Harris). On Tuesdays, I’m “trying” to fast from technology. It was easy to “loose” my cell phone but it was hard not to log on to my email first thing in the morning. Steve calls it “no-technology Tuesday” and even avoided the television–maybe trying not to tempt me.

Ann Weems calls Lent “a time to intensify our living unto Christ . . . a time ponder and a time to wonder.” She calls it a holy time in the church year and in her book, Kneeling in Jerusalem, invites us to inhabit this time in ways that seek the holy in the ordinary.

These forty days stretch before us,
and those of us who believe
yearn to feel Your presence,
yearn to be Your people;
and yet, the days fill with ordinary things
with no time left
for seeking the holy.
Spiritual contemplation is all right
for those who have the time,
but most of us have to make a living.
Most of have to live in the real world
where profanity splashes and blots out
anything holy.
Where, O Holy One, can we find You in this unholy mess?
How, O God, can we find the holy in the ordinary?

How are you finding holiness in your days this Lent?
Speaking of a special time of prayer, The Upper Room is inviting folks to subscribe to their 50 days of prayer before and during General Conference which is quickly approaching on April 24 – May 4.

Shalom,
Kelly

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