Endurance

Cheated the other day.

Broke the fast.

Sneaked a peak at the TV at ten.

The newsman was in an ice fish hut.

His top story was about him.

This just in...he'd caught a dinky walleye in a frozen lake.

Lucky me letting silence slip to catch this news.

Some nights are hard to keep the fast. Especially mid-winter nights when the big news is it's well-below zero.

Lakes are frozen.

Fish still bite.

Good thing the large, dark Newfie lays by our front door.  She absorbs tonight's chilly draft.

She watches me watch the tube.

She's thinking,

The real news is you're not missing much, Man.

Paul's letter to the Hebrews (10:36) had the day's headline,

You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what he has promised.

-tim

This Guy in Church

Walked up to communion the other day behind this guy in church wearing a long cape draped down his back that said,

Repent

He held up a tall pole with his hands, on top of which was a sign, the size of those you see waving back and forth at political conventions that say Obama or Bush or Four More Years.

On the front of this guy's sign it also read,

Repent

and to expand on his point, the back of this guy's sign said,

Turn From Sin.

Wondered while walking up to communion about my sign if ever moved to do what this guy in church does...

What would my sign say?

Repenting...only when it occurs to me 

Or maybe Turning from sin...kinda

Probably (since never knowing when-to-say-when) my sign would say,

Four more years

But this being a walk toward New Jerusalem, maybe it'd be good to start my sign in a more simple way,

Todah rabah!

-tim

This Lent

Two thoughts.

First from Thomas Merton,

I need only to be nothing...to be at peace and poor and silent in the world...

And this from Abraham Heschel,

God is waiting for man to seek him.

Hope this Lent is good for you.



--tim