(my thoughts) part 2

So now for the action plan. I am ready for this idol to die. I am ready to take an ax to this idol. To pull down the 'high places' as it says in Kings and Chronicles again and again. I want no room for this idol to be left in me. 

Lent is around the corner... March 5th is Ash Wednesday. It seems a good time to devote some more time to Jesus. Lent is meant as a time of contemplation, sacrifice and reflection. The giving up is never meant to just be for the 40 days - but is meant to extend for the rest of your life. So giving up chocolate is out of the question! Because I think I might need that to survive. It is just a little bit of heaven here on earth... Anyway.... so for Lent I plan to do some serious fasting. 

So in part 1 of this post I started by sharing something one of the counseling ladies at my Medifast center asked ... What I want to do (since I haven't lost any weight) How do you want to continue, and why I was even there. So I pondered and began to hatch a plan. 

I knew Lent was coming up and I asked if they had a plan for fasting ... she said 'no' but if I wanted to do it - I could make my own plan. I thought of fasting instantly, but for less spiritual reasons than one might imagine - mostly I am sick of thinking about food - and it sounds nice to have a break from concerning myself with it altogether. But as that thought broke through inside me I said - YES - that IS exactly what I need. 

So I plan to fast for 2 to 3 days stretches each week during Lent. It will vary depending on the week. Because I have so many evening obligations that might have me cooking or going to someones house for dinner, and my mom and step father are rolling into town for a weekend; it seemed too hard to try and nail down a specific stretch of time - at the same time each week. So It will fall into each week as it fits the best. That way I won't have to explain to my sometimes crazy mother what I am up to, or be eating with people I do not know and tell them why I am not participating. That would add up to more headache than is necessary. 

I also plan to fast from TV during that time - and during lunch breaks. Why add anything else in? I think it is necessary to keep me focused on the task at hand. The point of a fast is not just to remove the thing fasting from, but to replace it with more Jesus time. So TV is an unnecessary distraction... but if the family is watching a movie all together - I will indeed join in. 

I am not sure all that I plan to study - but the story of Jehosephat has been on my mind from 2 Chronicles 17 - 20. I randomly read through it the other day and felt for the first time in a while that this scripture was speaking to me. So I would like to study it - and about some of the other Kings, their idols, the 'high places', and how God blessed their lives as a result of obedience. I am also reading a book on our Union in Christ - called One with Christ by Johnson. This is something that has excited me because this doctrine is SO VERY important and is rarely taught on. This book just got published last year and I am super glad to be learning more. I am also reading Karl Rahner's book Encounters with Silence. His writing is poetic and beautiful and filled with a lot of questions similar to what I ask ... and the answers that he comes to are amazing. I am sure too that I will hit the psalms quite a bit and then be a bit of everywhere as I feel led or moved. It should prove to be interesting ... but I am hoping for much more - I am hoping for FRUIT!!! 

Here are some of the verses that caught my eye ... Lord, rescue.

2 Chron 20: 3,4, 8, 9

 Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance. He also ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting. So people from all the towns of Judah came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord’s help.

Your people settled here and built this Temple to honor your name. They said, ‘Whenever we are faced with any calamity such as war, plague, or famine, we can come to stand in your presence before this Temple where your name is honored. We can cry out to you to save us, and you will hear us and rescue us.’