Why I Am Thankful I Did Not Give Up Facebook for Lent
Each year when I approach the
season of Lent, those 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, I find myself
stumbling and tumbling to figure out what to give up or to take on. I found some great ideas this year at a
couple of blogs (like this one). It got down to the last
minute (in other words, Wednesday morning of Ash Wednesday) before deciding to
take something on. Ever since reading “TheWay of the Pilgrim,” I have been drawn to the practicing “praying without
ceasing” so for this Lent I am being very intentional about using Orthodox
prayer bracelet, praying through the Jesus prayer three times around (roughly 30
times), at morning, noon and night.
This practice
constantly brings up my state: I am a sinner.
By the time I’ve prayed it about 20 times, this really becomes the
focus. Now I do not “beat myself up”
over this but it is a reminder how much I am in need of God’s mercy.
I had
thought I might give up Facebook…until today when an important piece of my
journey opened up. You see, I am in a
denomination that creates tension believing there is a middle way. As my friends post differing opinions and
thoughts, I get a laugh, I get mad, I get tempted to unfriend (I’ve only done that
once), but what I have been really working hard to do is listen. I'm trying to listen to voices expressing their own journey
of faith in Jesus Christ that is at times, very different from mine.
And
today I read these words, “If you have a heart, you can be saved.” Spoken by Abba Pambo in the fourth century,
these words were like a wall to stop me cold.
We have made it so easy to cut off differing opinions, even those we
term sinners, and we do it without even considering or giving second thought to
the heart inside them, a heart that Jesus loves. A heart, like mine, like your’s that is
crying out to Jesus in the tenor and voice unique to that one person, “Lord
Jesus, have mercy on me a sinner.”
So I am
glad I did not give up Facebook and all you sinners like me with hearts in need
of a savior. And thanks for not giving
up on my heart as we journey toward Easter.
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