Sacrifice

When I was a student at UT I remember going to McDonald's on Ash Wednesday. There was a girl in line behind me with ashes on her forehead. So, I politely told her that she may need a napkin because there was something black on her head. Lovely huh? Tomorrow I will be getting those ashes from the palms of the previous Palm Sunday on my forehead and will begin the season of reflection and sacrifice. I am so thankful for the Liturgical year. These spiritual seasons to be intentional about asking how my life is matching up with the purposes of God. I once thought that sacrificing things was totally pointless not to mention completely lacking the fun factor. I couldn't relate to how or why Jesus would ever care about me not eating chocolate but now I know it is much more. It is a physical sacrifice meant to trigger an interior transformation.  I am choosing seven of my favorite daily activities and sacrificing one each day of the week: coffee, chocolate, music, computer, TV, sleep, and dinner. I am also going to try to write letters of encouragement each day during Lent.  I am seeking to allow God to do some weeding out of all of my junk.  To call a spade a spade and perhaps deal with things I would rather sweep under the rug like the fact that I yell at my kids sometimes and make up these stupid phrases that I say under my breath "damn it to hell and back"  or that I think that somehow I am superior to people that succumb to plastic surgery. I have issues. I admit it. I am grateful that I also have a loving and forgiving God that continues to show me in even greater ways how desperately I need him. The prophet Daniel pleaded for God this way: "I turned to the Lord God, pleading in earnest prayer, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes" (Daniel 9:3). I don't have the sackcloth Lord but I'm ready. Let's get to work.