Losing to Find

Guiding Prayer For Our Season of Fasting: 

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom,the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

Myself in Truth

Holy God, this is different, this may be difficult, but I am giving up myself and my time to you. Guide me and draw me unto you as I seek your will this week. -Amen

The Gathered

Holy God, we pray that while giving up some of our media connections this week, that we might be more fully connected to you and to our family in Christ.- Amen

Nurtured and Nurturing

Holy God may the moments of time that we free from media in our day, become sacred moments with our families.- Amen

Scripture For the Week

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.  Luke 9:23-24 (NIV)

Losing to Find

 Before Jozie, our precocious daughter came along, our border collie Starbuck and my plants were the primary focus of care for Gavin and I.  Starbuck was our rebellious child so we enrolled in obedience classes at Pet Smart and had her groomed with a nail trim about every other month because, before Jozie, she was an inside dog (the chew marks on the wooden baseboards in my house are still there to prove it).  

I remember the first time they put her up on that table to trim her nails, how she bristled and growled at the groomer and eventually had to be put in a muzzle attached to a very short leash to be cared for.  Slightly distressed(maybe I would need a muzzle too if they hurt my baby!) I asked the groomer if it hurt to have her nails cut.  She looked at me with an "are you serious?" expression on her face and said, "does it hurt to cut your toenails?" Point taken.  

We thought surely the next time we took her, having learned that the process did not hurt and she would get a nice treat at the end, Starbuck would not need the muzzle.  But every single time she does.  It's like she can't be convinced that she has to lose the old nails to run like she wants, to dig like she wants and to get the treats that she wants. She still wants to bite the hand that helps her...crazy dog.

I think there's a little Starbuck in all of us.  That little part of us that thinks, "If I give myself up to the Gospel it will hurt too much,” or even worse, “It will take over my whole life."  

So we compartmentalize our lives. We have our Sunday box, the God box, our work box, our recreation box, our children box, our relationships box and our home concerns box just to name a few.  When we are at our best or worst times in life some of those boxes get combined, like the God box and the home box or the God box and the relationships box.  

But God calls us to something more, something richer, something greater than this boxed and fractured life we're all living to some extent or another. God calls us to give it all up to him, to let him have control of all the boxes, all the parts, all the compartments and departments of lives. And in giving up that control, we allow the Holy Spirit to put all of those boxes and compartments together, balanced in our lives to build a home, a tabernacle, within us. It is a home in which the wisdom, love and warmth of Christ can create such an inviting spirit within us that we will be compelled to live out that love in the world.  

These weeks of fasting are not about what we are giving up; they are about gaining a sharper focus on the ways in which Christ wants us to live…The Way. It is about making space to allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us, to guide us and to mold our families, our church and ourselves into the beautiful, dynamic creation He has called us to be.

Each week we will be called to give up something and to refocus on or take on something greater such as time with God, time with family, or our connection to one another through Christ as a church family.

I invite you, at whatever age or stage you are in life, to cast off the fear and take on the challenge of the cross. We will walk this path together and, if you feel compelled, share our thoughts, victories and growing edges on this blog.  Each week and each day will have a new focus, a new thought or a new challenge.  We will take a look at ourselves as individuals (Myself in Truth) as families (Nurtured and Nurturing) and as the living Church (The Gathered). 

Let us travel together that we might transform our lives from boxes into beautiful tabernacles in which the spirit of the Most High can dwell.

Blessings on the Journey and, let's face it, fingers crossed.

-Beca