Cadburry Eggs & Facebook

Well friends, the Lenten season is upon is, as of tomorrow, Ash Wednesday.

I've never actually given anything up for Lent before, or seriously mediated on its purpose. Our small group, though, finished the book The Gospel According to Jesus (by Chris Seay) this past week, and the last chapter was chock full of wonderful, challenging insight. In Seay's last section, he outlines 10 'commandments' or ideas to try incorporating into our lives, in efforts to experience greater Shalom, or peace through God's work in our lives.

Two of the ideas were Fasting, and Feasting. These are two concepts which I hadn't really given significant time to in my life either. But in reading this chapter, I see how closely they are related, and how truly maturing they can be for us. 

I'm not going to preach here, or give some long-winded explanation of these concepts. Just the things I feel like Ben & I are learning about them. When most people hear 'Fasting', I suppose they usually think in relation to food, and for the purposes of getting an answer prayerfully... or maybe a spiritually cloaked "diet" :)

But I realized there are a plethora of reasons to fast, and to fast from a plethora of things. Why, you ask? Well for right now, we want to experience more consistently genuine gratitude to God for His unending provisions. Removing something we take too often for granted causes us to realign our sight on Him- because He's the one providing in the first place. 

By the same token, fasting frees us to feast genuinely on the blessings He pours out on us. Seay described a really touching story about Mother Theresa in the Feasting section. In her journal entries, she confesses to living decades of her life not feeling loved by God. Surprising, right? Almost heartwrenching- coming from one of our world's most "godly", good people. Her confession proves that God's purpose for us does not equate to giving up everything we want. He gave His Son for us so that we could live joyfully, abundant lives- remembering His provision and grace. 

Well, Ben & I have been thinking it over, and we each have some things we feel distract us. It's not that these things are inherently bad... they just take up time. Too much time. For Ben, it's TV in the evening, after work. For me... it's Facebook in the mornings before work. When we invest in those things, two hours can go by and all of the sudden we think, "wait, what happened to the time??" I find it funny, because Ben never uses Facebook, and I hardly ever watch TV (except when I'm folding laundry... which, let's be honest, never happens) i.e.

yes. That is 2+ basket's worth of laundry.

And yes, that takes up almost the entire width of our fullsize couch.

Do not judge.

So friends... for the next 40 days, we will not be watching television. And I will not be seen on Facebook- although I'll try to blog some of my thoughts through it all, and I can post them on FB so y'all can see. We hope to use up the extra time talking, reading, and enjoying each others company more cognitively. Oh, and eating Cadburry Eggs- because obviously that needs to happen. 

On a completely unrelated note, Brandi weighs 22.8 lbs as of yesterday.

Ben & I can hardly believe how quickly she's grown. 

Brandi will not be taking part in the Cadburry Egg consumption- she needs to watch her girlish figure, clearly... but we're going to attempt evening walks/runs together, replacing some of the TV time as well. I think all around it will be a beneficial Lenten season. 

Anyone else joining us in this celebration of Lent??