Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Lent and Other Things . . .

As many of you know, I was raised Assembly of God, and now consider myself non-denominational, so I've never celebrated Lent by giving up something.  In contrast, Mike was raised Catholic, so he spent the first 25 years of his life giving up peanut butter, chocolate, candy, sodas, school (just kidding!).

Currently, in our Life Group, we are studying Kyle Idleman's gods at war, which focuses on the false gods that we live with in our culture today.  I know what you're thinking - no one has a false god, right?  That went out with the golden cow over 2,000 years ago.  WRONG!

When you look in the book of Joshua, chapter 24, it says to "choose for yourself today whom you will serve."  Something to keep in mind there is that in Joshua's time, serve not only meant to worship, but it also meant where your time, money and efforts are focused.  So in other words, to choose whom you will serve does not mean one big decision - it's a continuous action - made up of little decisions that each of us make every single day.

We all serve little gods.  They can be gods of comfort, pleasure, power, status, perfectionism . . . just to name a few.  Part of the study is identifying those gods that are at war for our heart, at war to take our focus away from the one TRUE God, Jesus.  Most recently, I've been digging deeper to identify the gods of comfort in my life.  Remember, a god is something we go to in times of struggle, rather than reaching deeper for the Lord.

With all of the focus on gods of comfort, I've realized that I'm a big dessert-aholic (is that a word?).  So, keeping that in mind, I've decided to give up sweets for Lent.  I haven't given up anything for Lent ever - not in 32 years.  This is a big step for me.  I've also committed to stopping and praying for God's acceptance and strength in those times when I would normally grab a piece of chocolate if I was stressed, or placate myself with a cookie after work, or plan a nice dessert when I had a bad day.

I'm not brave enough to say I'm giving up sugar completely, because I'm not going to scour labels for sugar.  However, if it fits in the sweets/dessert category (cookies, chocolate, cake, candy, poptarts, donuts, etc) then it's not going in my mouth!

It kind of leaves me wondering, though . . . I was driving to work this morning and totally jonesing for a donut or a cherry poptart, and I realized that I was pretty much lusting in my heart for some sweets.  Which technically means I already had them, right?!?!

Silly, I know, but definitely something to consider.  I know Ash Wednesday is pretty much over now, but it's not too late - anyone else have a god of comfort they plan to give over to Jesus?  Lent season is a great time to try . . .

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