40 days of Lent - better late I guess

A note to the people who wrote the UCC Spring Cleaning Lenten calendar -  this should of been yesterday's lenten thought.

March 10 - Daylight Savings Time begins today.  Don't be late for church!  Go to bed an hour earlier tonight.

Tonight?  on Sunday

Anyway - I did try to go to bed earlier last night - but that did not work.  Until I got settled, did my Sunday School Lesson and took the dog out I ended up going to bed around 12 - which was now 1 thanks to Daylight Savings Time.  Then I had one of those bad night sleeps that I thought I wasn't sleeping but I guess I was - but I know I was awake at 2:22 AM, 5 AM, 6 AM and then got up at 7:30AM
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After a long day of two trips back and forth to the hospital to see Parke I think I will take their advice and go to bed an hour early tonight. 

Good night - sleep tight (what does that mean anyway?)

40 days of Lent-Go Fish?

Today my UCC Lenten Calendar has the following:

February 15 - "Fish on Fridays is a Catholic traditions and not a bad idea. Eating fish twice a week is recommended by the American Heart Association.  Good for your brain, too."

I don't know about you but I certainly could use something for my brain.  

 I found myself researching where fish on Friday started.  There is an old story about a Pope way way back that decided to help a small fishing village by proclaiming one needs to eat fish on Friday.  However the Vactican says there are no records to that effect and that actually fasting is what was suppose to be followed.

According to Wikipedia - The Catholic Church observes the discipline of fasting or abstinence at various times each year, especially during Lent. For Catholics, fasting is the reduction of one's intake of food, which may or may not include abstinence from meat (or another type of food).

According to Christian teaching, Jesus died on a Friday, and his death redeemed a sinful world. People have written of fasting on Friday to commemorate this sacrifice as early as the first century.

Technically, it's the flesh of warmblooded animals that's off limits — an animal "that, in a sense, sacrificed its life for us, if you will," explains Michael Foley, an associate professor at Baylor University and author of Why Do Catholics Eat Fish On Friday? Fish are coldblooded, so they're considered fair game. "If you were inclined to eat a reptile on Friday," Foley says, "you could do that, too."  (Anybody for snake on Friday)

Any way - all this talk of fish takes me to the VBS song:

Today is the day for which I've been waiting
Jesus is a preaching and I going there
I'm packing my lunch it won't be empty.
I'm bringing plenty so that I can share
One basket, two fish and five loaves of barley bread.

We know the story - Jesus feeds the 5000 with just 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread that a young boy brings. A line in the song proclaims

Everyone agreed it was a MIRACLE! - which I love to shout out when singing the song

Miracles are around us everyday - we just don't notice them - just like yesterday's Lenten message which told us to "notice everything, notice ourselves"  today's is notice the miracles.  However small they are, like a flower, a bird flying overhead and especially a baby's cry, these are all small miracles.

The other day I felt like I experienced a miracle.  On my way to work Wednesday I came to a three way stop, I was just ready to make my right turn when I heard or felt "wait" and sure enough here came a car down the street, never saw and never stopped at the stop sign.  I would of been hit in the driver's side of my car.  After I made the turn, I said a small prayer, just simply "thank you God, thanks for that".

Today, be aware of the miracles ....they do happen, and when they do, say thanks.

40 Days of Lent

My Pastor, Pastor Mike has to stop giving rousing sermons.  They start me wondering as to what my mission and ministry is in this life.  What talents and treasures am I using that God has given me to work to His good.   Last night, at our Ash Wednesday Service he pointed out that we our Ambassadors of our faith.  Oh Pastor Mike stop it!

No, seriously don't.  We need reminders as to what we are here for and why we were put on this earth. 

We forget sometimes because life gets in the way.  Work, laundry and even cleaning sometime sidetracks me.   Our minds become marshmallows of thinking.  That is one of the reasons I stopped writing this blog, I had to think.  I had to study and search the Bible for answers.  Instead I gave into life.  But soon everything became the same everyday.  Example, and this is true.  I was driving to work this morning and when I hit Schadt Avenue I suddenly wondered, what did I wear today.  That is a true marshmallow mind. 

Well - in this 40 days of Lent  -  I vowed to start thinking again, so I printed off a calendar yesterday from the UCC Church that goes with their devotional that we are doing in our book club for Lent called Spring Cleaning, I received a very timely message....

February 14 -  Lent commemorates the 40 days Jesus spent wandering in the wilderness.  Go for a solitary wander through your neighborhood with no destination in mind. Notice everything. Notice yourself.

Wow, notice yourself.   Do any of us take the time to notice ourselves.  You know, it is in those solitary times that God can speak to us the best and those solitary moment become less and less with the increase of electronic devices that are at our finger tips so that we can be busy playing games or texting every moment of our day.  A Christmas song has a line in it that goes, I wonder while I wander. 

Today spend sometime wandering.  Maybe, you're like me and you can't really take a walk around your neighborhood because you're at work and won't have time later, so today, where ever I walk - which will be at the Farmers Market at lunch - take to time to notice everything.  Notice something that you might take for granted normally.  Notice the details in something, a piece of fruit as an example.  And more importantly notice yourself today.  Notice where you are in God's plan.  Are you where you want to be? And are you where God wants you to be!

Joyce Meyer says, "I may not be where I need to be but I thank God I am not where I used to be" 

I think that sums it up.  Good travel on your Lenten Journey.