Making Room for Something Else

Dear Friends,We are exactly one week into this season of Lent, journeying our way towards Easter.  Many of you were with us Sunday to continue our celebrations of 250 years of serving God and this community, where Rev. Dave Mayo and his wife Loretta returned to be with us.  And last Wednesday, as we began Lent, more of you were with us than on any other Ash Wednesday in the past dozen years!  If you missed either of these services, you can head online to YouTube or Facebook and check them out!

Let me pitch that Dave’s message about Open Doors is a great way to look at the Invitations to Grow in Jesus that we’re looking at during this Lent.  These are opportunities to engage in practices the church has found helpful over 2,000 years, to encounter, to grow and to be formed in Jesus Christ.

We began last Wednesday with a doozy… Fasting.  We provided a practical guide for trying a fast, and if you do, I’d love to hear how it goes.  It spurred me on to try one too, and I’ll update you all once it’s completed!

One key to a fast though… it’s not just about what you take away or abstain from, that matters.  We usually think of fasting as abstaining from food – whether it’s chocolate or alcohol or red meat on Friday’s during Lent or all food… we tend to focus on the “giving up” part.  But it’s not just about what we give up.

You see, when we abstain from something, we’re… making room for something else.  We give up watching the nightly news, and all of the sudden, we have 30 or 60 minutes in our day that we didn’t have before.  We give up eating breakfast, and all of the sudden we have 500 calories and 30 minutes of preparation and eating (or maybe 5 minutes if we usually just grab a granola bar and run).  Whenever we give something up, whenever we “fast” – we’re making space for something else to take its place.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus gives a short parable, or analogy about being freed from an evil spirit.  It’s an odd one that we don’t talk about too often, mainly because the spirit, eventually returning, brings with it seven more and makes the house (the person) even worse than before.  The main takeaways are that emptying out (our home, our mind, our hearts) isn’t the goal.  The fasting or abstaining isn’t the goal itself.  It’s just as possible to have something bad take its place.  If you skip the nightly news… but decide to binge porn, or you skip a normal breakfast… but decide to eat a pint of ice cream, that’s not good for your body, mind or soul.

Fasting or abstaining creates a space, and seeking God in that space, helps us to grow.  It’s not just about creating space or not doing something.

So, first we make room by cutting something out, that allows us to proactively engage with God from a place of less distraction.

This Sunday, we’re going to look more closely at the invitation to prayer, and couple it with journaling.  I’m looking forward to exploring it together!

Welcoming You to Grow in Jesus this Lent,

Pastor Don