Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday)

As we approach Lent, today is a feast day; a day meant to use up all the fatty good stuff as we enter into a season of greater devotion through fasting. The Christian life is marked by seasons of fasting and feasting.

Much of that rhythm is lost in the current times we live in and perhaps that’s why there is much of life that feels unbalanced. The life in the West is one of over-indulgence and excess. There is grace and mercy in limits and I feels like everyone is thirsting after true grace and mercy of God.

This Lent season have mercy on yourself and throw yourself at the mercy of God by embracing limits in your life and telling yourself enough is enough. Prayerfully enter into a season of fasting, not for religious sake, but for love. Cultivate your love for Jesus by tending to the garden of your heart by removing the stones, weeds, and debris that is choking and hindering your life with Jesus.

Sit in silence. Eat just vegetables. Drink only water. Give rather than take. Serve rather than being served. There are so many ways to devote yourself to Jesus, but devotion is about action and not just sentiment. Sentiments and good-thoughts are not faith. James teaches us that faith without deeds is dead and Hebrews reminds us that it is impossible to please God without faith.

Faith means to show up. Jesus shows up for you in so many ways in your daily life, how are you showing up for Jesus? Let’s prayerfully consider this together throughout Lent.

Peace be with you…