What Are You Giving Up For Lent?

I don’t believe in giving anything up for Lent.  Or any other day for that matter.  Well unless you or someone else can convince me otherwise.

My mom was telling me in a proud voice that she gave up eating meat for the Lenten period.  She is Catholic.  I said to her,  ”Mom, it’s really not what you eat or don’t eat for Lent.  God sent his Son to die for us in the ultimate sacrifice.  There’s nothing you or I could give up or sacrifice that could begin to equal this.  In my opinion, God didn’t do this for us to pay him back by giving up the stuff we enjoy, even temporarily.  He wants our hearts, not our food.  I think that being good people and helping others is what he wants from us”.

That’s what I said to her but she was not deterred.  I could be wrong but it’s the way I see it. I seriously can’t see how giving up something could trump say, helping the poor.  How about for Lent, praying more earnestly?  Or, adding praying for your friends and family?  Sounds more effective to me than not eating meat.  (I am not in any way trying to belittle or question any religion and their practices.  If you subscribe to this practice, good for you. As they say, ‘to each his own’).

Yesterday, my mom ate meat.  The temptation was too much I guess…Oh and for the couple of weeks she didn’t eat meat, I didn’t see any changes in her.

Love you mama! Meat eater or not.

Just my take.

Related articles

• What Lent is Really About (cwoznicki.wordpress.com)
• You can’t lose, unless you give up (contemplativehomeschool.wordpress.com)
• Making Lent Real (encourageandteach.wordpress.com)
• Lead us not into temptation (fsdm.org.uk)
• What are u giving up for Lent?…. (tumietango.wordpress.com)
• Lent Heart Prayer Day 17 (mikeraburn.com)

So Who Is Hoarding All The Luck?

“I have the worst luck”,  is a statement you always hear or even say yourself.  Just about all of us are guilty.  What we don’t say or hear is, “I am so lucky”.

You are running late for an appointment and decide to take a shortcut that crosses a railroad track.  As you raced towards it, the control arms come down, effectively bringing your race to a halt and making you even later.  “Drat it!  This always happen to me!”   What you are forgetting are the times when the arms came down just as you crossed over, blocking the unlucky cars behind you.  You probably didn’t say, “Wow! I am so lucky!” did you? Of course not.  Why not?  Well maybe because we expect our lives to be like that, with everything going our way.

What I’m trying to say is that we always remember the hurt but not so much the pleasure.  We remember the bad stuff that happens to us more than we remember the good stuff.  How could you be the unluckiest person because you never win at lottery or you seem to always catch the red light or train when your best friend who already has diabetes, was recently diagnosed with cancer?  I sometimes tell my friends that I have the worst luck or no luck at all because I never win prizes at events.   What I am forgetting is that my mom and  both my grandmothers are still alive and healthy. ( One turns 101 in a few months).  Not too many people my age can say that.

Next time we encounter a small setback,  maybe we should try to not be too quick to play the ‘woe is me’ card.  We could perhaps remember a time when the perceived setback worked for us, like the train track example.  And if you say you are the unluckiest person and I say the same thing, then who is this lucky person hoarding all the luck?

Just my take.

Related articles

• thinking yourself lucky (sageandsilver.com)
• The psychology of luck (mike10613.wordpress.com)
• The Luck Factor [Tina Fotherby] (ecademy.com)

If faith without works is dead, how about works without faith?

Many of us believe that all we need to do is believe in God and study the bible and this should be good enough to make us  candidates for Heavenly rewards.  What we ignore is the part of the Bible that states  ’Faith without works is dead.’   To me, that means that I can believe until I’m blue in the face but if I do nothing about it, then my faith is useless.   Dead.  Which makes sense.  Why it makes sense?  Well with genuine faith and belief in Him comes the need to be like Him.  If we want to be like him then we have to exhibit good works.

Now if my faith is dead because I have no works to back it up,  how about if I do good works BUT I have no faith and/or belief in God?  I am a good person, right?  My works show that I am, so where do I stand?  That’s a good one.  One that we hear often.   I think that indeed if I go out and do good deeds, without a doubt, I am a good person.  Not Godly, but good.  So don’t I get some sort of reward for doing good? Maybe a free pass to Heaven?  Well consider this, you have a son who you love very much.  You give him whatever he wants and treat him as good as any kid would want to be treated.   Unfortunately, your son does not acknowledge you or love you.  He couldn’t care if you live or die.  But on the flip side, he is great doing his chores and homework.  He is otherwise a good boy.  Would you be satisfied?  Would his works be good enough to make you ignore the fact that he couldn’t care less about you?

My take.   And you, keep up the good work.

 

Related articles

• Faith Without Works is Dead (selfeducatedconservative.wordpress.com)
• Are We Saved By Works? (preacheroftruth.com)

Cheapskate Pastor Says Yes To Tithing But No To Tipping

Sometimes even well-meaning Christians forget what it actually means to be Christians.  Yes,  I do too.   We start focusing on serving ourselves and forget it is more than just us.  It’s serving those we share the earth with.  In this case, it’s serving those who serve us.

I read of a pastor who along with eight friends went out dining at Applebee’s Restaurant.  Because of the size of her party, there was an auto-tip of 18% added to her bill.  The pastor resented this and showed her resentment by writing on the bill, “I give God 10% why do you get 18?”  Now some cheapskates people might agree with the pastor’s take and stiff the poor minimum-wage-earning waitress whose job it is to cater to the whims of her diners.  To me, I think…well you know by now what I think.

To one server, it was insulting and comical.  So much that she took a photo of the bill and posted it online where it went viral.  Well of course it will.  People pounce on that kind of stuff.

Was the pastor right?  In my opinion, no she wasn’t.  I think she was being a miserable cheapskate and should have exercised her Godliness in a more positive way than she did.  Was the waitress right in posting the offending receipt?  Well I probably would have done the same thing.  Unfortunately, her manager didn’t see it that way and fired her.   She apparently breached an unwritten confidentiality law that made it illegal to post bills that diners wrote on online.  The pastor wasn’t a happy camper went she found out her autographed receipt was viral online.   Serves her right!  She should have thought of that before she did what she did.

The thing is lately is that many of us think that going to church, tithing and reading the bible make us perfect Christians.  Somewhere along the way, we forget the ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ part.  Sorry if I step on any toes but it’s my take and my opinion.

Related reads:

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/applebees-waitress-fired-pastor-receipt-193820748.html

Selfish Christians

Pastors and Gays

Thursday’s Thoughts: Winnipeg’s Praying Police Chief

A few weeks ago, the City of Winnipeg got its first black police chief when Jamaican born Devon Clunis got the nod for the position.  Devon, who has over 20 years of service, also served as the police chaplain.  Since his selection, his strong Christian faith has been a topic of discussion.

In one of his first meeting with the media,  (A Christian news magazine), Clunis wore his faith on his sleeve and said the following:

EXCERPTS from the ChristianWeek story, New police chief: prayer will play a role in reducing violent crime

– “I’m a little tired of us… being ‘(the) murder capital of Canada,’ ” says Devon Clunis, who was appointed chief of police at the beginning of October. “People consistently say, ‘How are you going to solve that?’ It’s not simply going to be because we’re going to go out there and police it away. I truly believe that prayer will be a significant piece of that.

“What would happen if we all just truly — I’m talking about all religious stripes here — started praying for the peace of this city and then actually started putting some action behind that?” he adds. “I believe something phenomenal is going to happen in our city. I truly believe it’s coming. I don’t think I’ve arrived at this position just by chance.”

– Clunis attributes his success to God. He says he has never asked God to make him a powerful person, but rather he has prayed that God make him a leader who treats people with dignity and respect and who is successful in his endeavours.

– Clunis says at the end of the day, he just wants to give of himself to help the community.

– “God still cares, He’s still involved in our lives,” Clunis says, “and I believe without a shadow of a doubt the only reason that I am in this position is because God is involved in it. Without a shadow of a doubt.”

Yesterday, the media was in a frenzy.  ’Chief urges prayer to fight crime’ was the general headline, his words sadly taken out of context.

Chief Clunis has my support.  I am happy to see a man of strong christian values in his position.  I have seen, read and heard of too many ‘bad cops’ and ‘dirty cops” that I, for the most part, have lost faith in them.   Clunis has given me a reason to have at least a glimmer of hope.

As for using prayer as part of his arsenal, why not?  With Winnipeg the nation’s crime capital, what do we have to lose? And while you kneel in prayer for our city,  don’t forget to say one for Clunis.  He needs our prayers and support and we need him to stay strong in his faith no matter what comes.

Oh, and like him, I also believe that the only reason he’s in this position is ‘because God is involved in it’.

All the best, Chief!  Keep the faith!

Just my take.

 

Related articles

• Winnipeg police chief proposes prayer to help combat crime (cbc.ca)
• Winnipeg police chief says comments on prayer and crime misconstrued (ctvnews.ca)
• Combat crime with prayer urges Winnipeg police chief (metronews.ca)
• Local Hero: Devon Clunis preaches the power of prayer (stjohnscathedral.ca)
• Winnipeg police chief to speak to media (cbc.ca)
• Police chief ‘misconstrued’ on controversial prayer statement (theglobeandmail.com)

It’s never a bad day, even when it snows early

On Tuesday, I went to the hospital to visit a friend who recently suffered a massive stroke that paralyzed the entire right side of his body.  I sat with him for a while even though we couldn’t communicate with each other.  He sometimes struggled for a breath of air and tried to speak during his brief moments of consciousness but was mostly incoherent. This was a man who was never lacking for words.  He was intelligent and a great debater.  Now here he was, reduced to a mumbling baby.

As I watched him, feeling useless and wondering if there was something I could do or say, I thought of my frailty.  I thought of how I would feel with my mind trapped in a body that refused to answer its will.  It was a dreadful thought that scared me.

The next day it snowed, prematurely by our expectations as we hadn’t seen snow before December for some time.  I joined the voices of the malcontents and questioned God’s bad timing.  It’s just the beginning of October! What kind of joke is this? How long is winter going to last this year?  This really sucks!  It was just a knee-jerk reaction as I am never one to really complain about too much snow, rain, heat or otherwise.

Then I thought of my friend in the hospital, (See the good thing about having an overactive mind is that it sometimes counters the negative thoughts by coming up with other thoughts, even while thinking).  I suspected that my friend would rather be out here navigating the snowy roads and feeling cold than lying on a hospital bed not knowing what his future holds.  That was a sobering thought that righted my ship.

Later, I was surfing Facebook and came upon the photo above, it was about being thankful for each day as someone somewhere is fighting to survive.  Coincidence?

As Thanksgiving approaches, there’s no better time to think of the things that are taken for granted.  The things that we feel we have earned.  A breath of air, health, possessions.  We feel that no thanks are necessary or saying thanks once should be good enough.

When we have our health and our lives, there is no such thing as a bad day.  Snow falling when we think it’s not supposed to, does not constitute a tragedy.  So now I am thankful that I could experience another winter.  I could feel the cold and trudge through the snow and that’s  more than some could say.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

Casting the first stone

A Mexican standoff. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”   We all know this Biblical saying.  But imagine what a boring world it would be if we subscribe to it.   None of us are without sin, even if we do not kill, we may lie.    Sin is sin, isn’t it?   if I am to judge my kleptomaniac neighbor, he also has the right to judge me, so  what we have here ladies and gentlemen, is a Mexican standoff.  No stones will be cast today.  You may now proceed to your homes.

In this day and age, casting the first stone is a luxury not readily affordable.  There is a race to get to that first stone and prizes are awarded.  Well at least so it seems.  Everyone’s fingers are pointed at everyone else but themselves.  We see the guy creeping on his wife but our own spousal abuse is overlooked.  As long as we are not cheating, it’s all good.  Sin that is highly visible takes precedent over sin that is behind closed doors and that makes it easier for the closeted sinner to cast the first stone.

Isn’t it funny that casting that first stone is almost the same as being the first one with the correct answer?  We all want to be the one who outed the sinner.  ’I caught him red-handed’ is a triumphant cry, worthy of a trophy but our hands stay in our pockets for fear that they too might be seen to be red.

So why is it so much easier to cast the first stone even if we do not fit the criteria of a qualified stone caster?  Why is it easier to ignore our own failures while pointing out those in others?  Is it even possible for us to first look at ourselves before we look at others?  I fear not.

Selfish Christians

Is there such a thing as a Selfish Christian? Isn’t that an example of an oxymoron?  I think it is.  You see, to me a Christian is one who not only follows Christ but also his teachings.  A Christian is then supposed to share their faith with others so they can also become a part of God’s family.  So in reality, we cannot be selfish and call ourselves Christians.  Right? For my blog’s sake, we’ll pretend it’s an acceptable term.