Clearing my head as I took a walk today (good for the body and the soul) in the rather mild winter weather I had some "Jesus" existential questions circling around my spirit: what am I doing? What are my motives to what I do? Am I following Love/Jesus?
Some events in my life have forced me to look at the grander view of things. I see I am part of something immensely bigger than myself. Part of this is also the fault of reading "Jesus for President" by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. The last section is all about what the praxis (the practical life) side of being a Christian might look like and he suggests things like finding ways creative ways to use renewable resources, being pacifist, etc. So these questions did not come uninitiated. The truth is a lot of my life feels very superficial but there must be a deeper meaning behind what I'm doing or I am doing it in vain. I simple cannot afford to live my life in a trite way. I need to seek God with every bit of my being and that means that the questions: What am I doing and why? as well as Am I following Jesus with this? are meant to be asked over and over again.
Showing posts with label reasons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reasons. Show all posts
Friday, January 24, 2014
Monday, March 19, 2012
Coffee and Chocolate
It is lent season. I am a newbie at observing lent. Yet I like it.
I kind of observed lent two years ago trying to give up "criticism" -- honestly one of my flaws in my marriage relationship. It was actually really good for me to do that. Last year I gave up facebook which was shockingly easy. I didn't really want to go on facebook after I made a point not to go on it after two weeks. I knew I wasn't missing anything. In fact, going back on facebook was weird. I realized how surface level it can be and it didn't have much to draw me back in. I had developed closer relationships with people that I saw in real life -- so it was definitely valuable. I am on facebook again but generally limit myself to Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday in checking it. This year I decided to give up my growing coffee addiction and chocolate. I'll be real in saying that just last week I counted the days and couldn't believe I had so much longer to go. Haha.
So, as of yet I ate a tiny bit of cacao (which is what chocolate is derived from) in a raw fruit dessert I made for my housemate's birthday. I honestly didn't know cacao was chocolate until my friends pointed it out to me. I decided to eat it anyway since it was such a different form and not one I had ever tried that I can remember. Chocolate has been relatively easy to give up. Definitely there are times I see something chocolate that I really want -- and I almost justified eating a chocolate mousse because it wasn't a "chocolate bar" -- most of my standard intake of chocolate is. However, I was convicted by a friend. Hehe. Coffee has been a different story. It's not so much that I crave it. I do want it sometimes, but more so for the physical/chemical effect it gives -- the zoom. I have been allowing myself more naps and enjoying that new rhythm. However, I am grateful it has not been cloudy and instead gloriously sunny lately.
Even though I am doing fine in not having chocolate or coffee I wonder if I am fasting "right". I don't want to do something legalistically or even just do it out of habit. I want to be contemplative of why I am doing it. The idea behind lent as far as I understand it is to sacrifice something as an act of identifying with Jesus Christ who sacrificed his place in heaven (for a time) to be with us on earth and even sacrificed himself for sin so "him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is absolutely crazy beautiful. I want to focus my energy and thoughts on this more. I want a closer relationship with the Maker of all good things so by giving some up I can appreciate more.
If you wish, what are you doing for lent, if anything? Why? How's it going?
I kind of observed lent two years ago trying to give up "criticism" -- honestly one of my flaws in my marriage relationship. It was actually really good for me to do that. Last year I gave up facebook which was shockingly easy. I didn't really want to go on facebook after I made a point not to go on it after two weeks. I knew I wasn't missing anything. In fact, going back on facebook was weird. I realized how surface level it can be and it didn't have much to draw me back in. I had developed closer relationships with people that I saw in real life -- so it was definitely valuable. I am on facebook again but generally limit myself to Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday in checking it. This year I decided to give up my growing coffee addiction and chocolate. I'll be real in saying that just last week I counted the days and couldn't believe I had so much longer to go. Haha.
So, as of yet I ate a tiny bit of cacao (which is what chocolate is derived from) in a raw fruit dessert I made for my housemate's birthday. I honestly didn't know cacao was chocolate until my friends pointed it out to me. I decided to eat it anyway since it was such a different form and not one I had ever tried that I can remember. Chocolate has been relatively easy to give up. Definitely there are times I see something chocolate that I really want -- and I almost justified eating a chocolate mousse because it wasn't a "chocolate bar" -- most of my standard intake of chocolate is. However, I was convicted by a friend. Hehe. Coffee has been a different story. It's not so much that I crave it. I do want it sometimes, but more so for the physical/chemical effect it gives -- the zoom. I have been allowing myself more naps and enjoying that new rhythm. However, I am grateful it has not been cloudy and instead gloriously sunny lately.
Even though I am doing fine in not having chocolate or coffee I wonder if I am fasting "right". I don't want to do something legalistically or even just do it out of habit. I want to be contemplative of why I am doing it. The idea behind lent as far as I understand it is to sacrifice something as an act of identifying with Jesus Christ who sacrificed his place in heaven (for a time) to be with us on earth and even sacrificed himself for sin so "him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is absolutely crazy beautiful. I want to focus my energy and thoughts on this more. I want a closer relationship with the Maker of all good things so by giving some up I can appreciate more.
If you wish, what are you doing for lent, if anything? Why? How's it going?
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