Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Fasting, Marathon Training for the Soul

Lent, I thought, was something you only did if you were Catholic.  Then, I learned that Lent is just fasting from something for 40 days. And ending the fast on the day we celebrate Christ's resurrection is so symbolic.  It's like taking the last steps of a marathon downhill onto a cool lawn.

Fast food and dessert I decided, were two indulgences I could cut for 40-odd days. I even started before the official Lent start date (no favorite cream cheese paczkis on Fat Tuesday).  I was flushed with moderate success for...10 days?

Then I agreed to go on an even stricter one-week cleanse with my aunt (one of those I've seen since grade school and had to try someday), and so I ate some dessert and fast food because I needed to prepare for the strict week! Oh the logic of the loophole! 

So I'm only a few days into Lent and I've failed. But I still like Lent because fasting strengthens soul-muscle, giving more room for the power of God to work.  Depriving ourselves of small things like food and drink (not so small sometimes) build the muscles for running longer marathons of the soul, for allowing God to power us up the last hills when our leg muscles feel like hamburger.

Muscles like:

    • Focus. Fasting puts body, mind, and spirit are on the same page.
    • Proper perspective. Fasting brings to mind there will always be hunger and pain. Fasting captures that hunger and invites us to give it to God.
    • Spiritual eyesight.  Fasting chips away at barriers to relationship with God. 
    • Persistence in temptation. Fasting trains for other battles.
Jesus, the master finisher (who holds all the world records in this sort of thing) is the one who powers our spiritual exercise. His power gets a chance to work when we take the time to train.

At a marathon, the finishers don't necessarily have perfect training histories. But they have training histories.

And from the field of writing, the same truth: I try to write a certain amount each day, five days a week.  A rule sometimes broken is better than no rule. -Herman Wouk

Yes, better to be following a rule and sometimes breaking it than not trying at all. So, leaving those "desserts which are behind and reaching forward"...



Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Rejoicing, Thieves, and Happiness

It was either the day my computer was stolen or the day before that I got out my new pastels and wrote on my wall.  (The privilege of people who live in temporary walls.)


Why that verse? It was kind of random, except that rejoicing has historically been in short supply in my life.

Why that day? Maybe a little humor on God's part...(maybe she needs a head start rejoicing before the computer gets stolen).

Then, just this morning, it appeared again, Philippians 3:1: Rejoice in the Lord.  Here is what Adam Clarke says in his old commentary on this verse: "Be always happy, but let that happiness be such as you derive from the Lord."

Oh! So God knows that we will find happiness in something in life.  He's not telling us to be happy. He's telling us what to be happy about.

So thefts have no impact on the rejoicing that we "derive from the Lord."  Because we weren't rejoicing in our things...

But I still hope the verse this morning isn't preparation for another theft!










Friday, February 17, 2012

Setting Sail...Philippians 1:23

"My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better."

Adam Clarke believes that Paul is hinting at a ship metaphor here. He's referring to a ship captain in a foreign port who wants to go home to his family and hometown.  Yet he knows his mission will be best fulfilled by staying on.

Sometimes we long just to have that longing, that identification with the life beyond.  Imagine how little fear of dying we would have if we could all view death as going to our hometown after a long trip! 


Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Upside of Being a Little Nuts

Reader's Digest clip again....funny, because I haven't read the Reader's Digest seriously in years.  But this is not only good but comforting.  (!)



You may be surprised to learn that certain disorders are often linked to qualities we value as a society:

  • Anxiety: You're more likely to be COMPASSIONATE.  Highly anxious people are known for their sensitivity and attentiveness to others. They also tend to be hypervigilant, so they make good surgeons, doctors, dentists, and bankers.
  • Mild Bipolar Disorder: You're more likely to be CREATIVE.  Many people prone to mood swings are writers, artists, musicians, and performers. 
  • Depression: You're more likely to be INSIGHTFUL. Depressives tend to be more in touch with the deeper truths about themselves, life, and the human experience, experts say. 
  • Obsessive-compulsive Disorder: You're more likely to be HARDWORKING and DILIGENT. People with OCD tend to excel at jobs with strict rules or guidelines that require a high level of conscientiousness.  
Reader's Digest, March 2012, p. 133

Interview of the main players in Moneyball

I just started listening to Moneyball on audiobook. It's a story about talent, one of my favorite topics.  Here's an interesting interview: the hero of the book, Billy Beane, discusses the story with Brad Pitt, who plays Billy in the movie.

 


Billy was once a young baseball player who people thought would be a star.  After enduring all that pressure and never really succeeding, he became general manager of a team and changed the way they chose players.  

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

She took out her iPhone...

Reader's Digest's face lift on the opening lines of several classic novels:

Alice in Wonderland:  "Alice was beginning to tire of sitting by her sister on the bank. She took out her iPhone and played Angry Birds for the next three hours."

Pride and Prejudice: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of an Internet start-up to call his own."

And....I just read a great novel on my Kindle.  It was a real button-presser.  (p.190, March 2012)