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fasting

Science Corner: Get Healthy Fast

lent photo
Man does not live on bread alone, but maybe eating bread alone sometimes will help you live longer. (Photo by Ondřej P. Vaněček )

Ash Wednesday inaugurates a season of fasting for many Christians. Nowadays those fasts vary widely; perhaps you aren’t reading this post because you are abstaining from social media for Lent. Still, the classics endure for a reason, and now scientists are exploring how cutting back on food affects our bodies. The latest study found that fasting had several health benefits including weight loss, lower blood pressure and healthier blood sugar levels. Or perhaps more precisely, a “fast-mimicking diet” provided those benefits; subjects ate normally most days but for 5 consecutive days each month they ate low-carb, low-protein foods high in unsaturated fat and totaling 700-1100 calories per day.
[Read more…] about Science Corner: Get Healthy Fast

Why Should You Celebrate This King?

exodus

A point often overlooked when we talk about Lent is its celebratory nature.  Throughout the week we remember our complete need for healing, but doing so makes our rejoicing all the more honest.  During the week we are reminded that without the Light we’re lost, but we remember that “Sunday’s a-comin’!”  On Sunday we celebrate the resurrection.  We celebrate the God who brings the dead to life and calls nonexistent things into existence.

But what might a celebration for partakers in the ‘kingdom of God’ look like today? What would it look like if, from the world over, members of the kingdom—the kingdom belonging to the Just and Holy, the Faithful and True—gathered under the same roof and celebrated their King?  I’m reminded of worship at Urbana ’09.  I’m reminded of the jubilant throng of men and women leaving the St. Louis stadium just after midnight on New Year’s Eve.  Walking through the halls we celebrated in Kiswahili, singing “Hakuna Mungu Kama Wewe” (“There’s no God like you”).  See videos of this here and here.

The stadium’s janitors and security looked on with curiosity.  People exiting this stadium after a game or a show, no matter how magnificent, usually hurry to their cars and out of the CBD to escape the gridlock.  But not these.  Not the people who’ve just gathered 17,000 strong to celebrate this King.

That is how I imagine a celebration in the kingdom of God.

Sundays during Lent are for that kind of joy. [Read more…] about Why Should You Celebrate This King?

Shoot Christians Say: Lent and Ash Wednesday

setmefree

Lent is Church language.  For countless jaded Christians the word implies little more than hypocrisy and self-righteousness.  For others it’s that time of year to give up coffee or baked goods for a few weeks.  When some think of it, this might pop into their heads: “It seems like I remember my sin enough without smudging it on my face and going without my favorite drink for a month and a half.”  I invited a friend to the Ash Wednesday service with a local Catholic congregation and this was his response: “Nah man.  I like my coffee.”  And then he added, chuckling, “When I hear ‘Lent’ I think of my Catholic friends giving up some piddly thing and making a big deal about it on Facebook.”  He has a legitimate critique.  There are, in my experience, a precious few who really get the point of dabbing a bit of ash on their foreheads.  And that is, in part, why I’m writing this series.

In an article written by an Anglican from the Order of Julian of Norwich, the author says this of the language of Lent:

Spiritual authority has been drained from these words; to a great degree they have become old, punctured vessels which have long since leaked out their wine. If they do retain meaning for some, it is often of an antipathetic character; they are words signifying psychological abuse at the hands of an aggressive, punishing Church. Simply put, our language has lost its spiritual authority because, to my mind, it has not been used with honesty nor as a sacred means of grace, as sacred vessels which can potentially bear the wine of God’s direct word to the soul.

(A Retreat given to the Clergy of the Diocese of Fond du Lac in Lent, 1998)

I want to attempt to bring honest life back to dying language.

Before you begin reading, please take a few moments to center yourself.  Ask the Spirit to make himself known to your heart and mind.  Thank the Father for all you have, and center your attention on Jesus, the wise King. [Read more…] about Shoot Christians Say: Lent and Ash Wednesday