Ready for Lent? Yes.

I may be a day early for Lent, because I'm ready. 


Oh, don't get me wrong, I made 2 King Cakes (one for home and one to share) and I had a piece last night and had a piece with both breakfast AND lunch today....and even with pancakes galore for dinner, there will be room for one final piece tonight after Bible Study. 

As I mentioned in my March newsletter article and on this blog, I've been working on weight loss and now, more importantly, maintaining that loss.  So today, I began some of the reading that I plan to use during my morning devotions and they will probably surface during meal times as well. 


Today I read the preface from Food for Life: The Spirituality and Ethics of Eating by L. Shannon Jung. I think part of my devotional time will mean going back to some journaling time as well.  (That was a great practice for me last Lent....now why did I stop that?)  We'll see if some of my journal musings show up here, I'm sure some of them will. 


After that read, I'll move into Sharing Food: Christian Practices for Enjoyment also by L. Shannon Jung.  I'll follow that with My Name is Child of God, not "those people" by Julia Dinsmore who gives a first person look at poverty. 


We'll see where these three reads take me.  Truth be told, I've leafed through the first two from time to time (based on the random highlighted sections) but do not remember seriously sitting down with them.  And in light of weight loss and management being a current concern of not just mine, but also as pastor in a congregation that celebrates around food, it's something I think about every day. 


As I took my yearly health assessment, I paused when I hit this question: 


Are you a prayerful eater? 


Hmmm....I pray before meals, but I'm not sure that's what they were asking. 
I wonder if incorporating reading and journaling into my prayer time this season will shape my eating into prayerful eating...but maybe I need to learn what that actually means first. 


Thanks for reading along over the next 40 days....now, what about you?  Is the season of Lent a time for you to pick up a new practice or shed an old habit? Do you remove something or add something that helps you turn away from distractions and enables you to see God at work in your life? 


Blessings and peace.