I was slightly busy on Ash Wednesday: for the sake of not inducing nausea I will not post the photos here (but they are up on Facebook) of the consequences of hitting a cutting board and dropping the contents, knife included, on my feet. Let’s just say that the reason I was twittering was that I was on bed, not really able to concentrate that much, and trying not to take pain relief. I was woken in the middle of the night in pain (due to the bandage getting too tight). However, this morning I have been cooking wearing the pair of clogs that I normally do not let see the light of day, but are the only things that do not put pressure on the wound.
It was Ash Wednesday. Now, although my church is seasonal and I use the lectionary, I’m still too cross-rained and reformed. I just keep on going, but at this time of the year the blogs often go silent, or close off their comboxen, and this is good for most of the bloggers who are on the front line. But this one will continue.
Today’s passage starts with one of my father’s favorite verses, and that will do for an introduction.
17Though the fig tree does not blossom,and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails and the fields yield no food; though the flock is cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stalls,
18yet I will rejoice in the LORD;I will exult in the God of my salvation.
I think that the idea of reform should not be a season, but a continual thing. We are continually needing to examine our life. I fully understand that for many the rituals of Lent act as a reminder on this, and that leads to a period of silence and contemplation. And that arguing is exhausting: to deal with a question asked in SSM’s combox (now shut for Lent, and good on her) introversion and extroversion are robust psychometric findings, with multiple replications since Eysenck came up with the ferminology and tests about fifty years ago.
Remember you are dust… pic.twitter.com/Clx2iTCv2L
— Fr. Robert Barron (@FrRobertBarron) March 5, 2014
Like many bloggers, I tend to introversion and find it easier to think by writing than by talking. I can act socially, but getting into a fight in a secular combox and dealing with the opposition tires. me. And as someone who only gets fifteen minutes of hate once a month, I have difficulty understanding how some of the Dark Reaction Ladies’ Auxiliary handle the daily 30 minutes of venom from the progressive sisterhood. For them, Lent is a mercy: they need the rest.
But we need to continually reform ourselves and our church. This cannot wait for a season. For there will always be those who prey on the tender and vulnerable, within the church and without it.
12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. 16Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.
17Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.
So, in this season we need to reform ourselves. The first habit I am trying to change is a simple safety one: like Most NZers, I walk around barefoot most of the time. But that is not compatible with knife work (cutting up vegetables and bacon) first thing in the morning while making a breakfast that keeps a student going most of the day. I have found my clogs. I now have to wear them when I am the kitchen hand.
Sounds simple: but changing any habit is difficult. Let’s concentrate on acting thoughtfully, doing good, and praying for those in need and facing war. Regardless of what we think of our leaders, we can pray for the guys on the front line: and that we reform ourselves before a revolution or an army forces reform on us.
A British sniper seated at a window of a house in Caen watching for enemy snipers through telescopic sights. #WWII pic.twitter.com/Mydma4LSki
— World War II History (@WW2Facts) March 5, 2014
