Fasting and Feasting

- Fast from the need for attention + Feast on attending the need of others

- Fast from indifference + Feast on the difference we make where hope is lost

- Fast from dwelling on the mistakes of the past + Feast on what they have taught you

- Fast from family feuds + Feast on family prayer

- Fast from relentlessly searching for happiness + Feast on the joy of bringing happiness to others

- Fast from closing your mind to new understanding       + Feast on a passion for truth

- Fast from cynicism     + Feast on hope

- Fast from loneliness + Feast on welcoming, hospitable acceptance of others

- Fast from routine and predictability + Feast on surprises and spontaneity and an open spirit

- Fast from talking + Feast on listening

- Fast from the demands of perfection + Feast on the glory of being human

- Fast from overpowering urge to win + Feast on the overpowering call to serve

- Fast from false security + Feast on an abiding trust in the present

- Fast from being stuck in time, place and mind + Feast on the journey

- Fast from negatives + Feast on positives

- Fast from bitterness + Feast on forgiveness

- Fast from anxiety + Feast on trust

- Fast from complaining + Feast on appreciation

- Fast from imagined illnesses + Feast on the healing power of God

- Fast from unrelenting pressures + Feast on the power of prayer

- Fast from worry + Feast on blessings

- Fast from pessimism + Feast on optimism

- Fast from anger + Feast on patience

- Fast from discontent   + Feast on gratitude

- Fast from pride + Feast on humility

- Fast from childishness + Feast on childlikeness

- Fast from emphasizing differences       + Feast on our common humanity

- Fast from the struggle to reshape the world     + Feast on the peace of God

- Fast from cursing the darkness + Feast on the light that overcomes the darkness

May God bless you with passion and compassion in this and every season of faith.

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Things to give up during Lent …

+ Taking those you love for granted

+ Promising more than you can deliver

+ Losing your temper

+ Trying to please everyone

+ Trying to get everything perfect

+ Doing the right things for the wrong reasons

+ Justifying your anger

+ Thinking about money

+ Blaming others

+ Nagging

+ Blocking out what you don’t want to hear

+ Listening only to yourself

+ Wanting to be in control

+ Having to be right

+ Patronizing people

+ Complaining

+ Carrying grudges

+ Denying your limitations

+ Making snap judgments

+ Denying your obsessions

+ Feeling sorry for yourself

+ Thinking of greener pastures

+ Telling God what to do

+ Pretending

+ Denying your gifts

+ Doubting you can change

+ Never saying you are sorry

+ Blaming yourself

+ Believing only in the possible

+ Doubting your goodness

+ Looking for easy answers

+ Lying to God

+ Looking the other way

+ Expecting others to solve your problems

+ Doing what everyone else does

+ Carrying a chip on your shoulder

+ Being bored

+ Cursing the darkness

+ Denying that you are loved

Economic uncertainty

By Jim Winkler, General Secretary, General Board of Church & Society, United Methodist Church

The economic crisis is spreading rapidly around the world, and along with it, a growing sense of panic. Undoubtedly, there is a strong sense that this is no ordinary recession.

Fear grips the Church, as well. Local churches, annual conferences and general agencies are slashing budgets, dropping ministries, laying off staff, cutting or freezing salaries. Pensions are in peril; benefits may be reduced.

A mania bordering on panic has seized many in the Church. Some say it’s time to realign, restructure and streamline. Many say it is time to turn back to God. Turn back? It seems to me that all the time is a good time to turn to God. The “turn back” idea is that in times of crisis God is there for us. I believe that is true. God will provide.

Realistically, though, I also know it is not necessarily the case that the people of God pull together in times of emergency. For instance, there are those who consider crisis a grand opportunity to carry out long-held, often secret, agendas.

The pundits say the “roaring ’90s” are over. They predict we’ll never go back to ever-escalating stock markets and ever-rising home values. According to them, credit will never be so easily available again, so people won’t end up in such humongous debt as now.

I’m not so sure about any of those predictions. The entire economic system seems to be built on constant growth and debt. The real questions should be: How did we manage, exactly, to tie our collective fate so tightly to a casino economy? And how do we avoid that again?

Have you noticed that the companies which are steady but not spectacular earners have become classified as “mature”? The word is not intended positively. These mature companies’ executives are pressured to increase profits. We live on the quarterly profit-and-loss statement.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been wasted on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The wealthy have been given huge tax cuts they don’t need nor deserve. Yet, many seem to think this crisis has been caused primarily by people who have bought big houses and fancy cars. They are the welfare queens of this time of unbridled greed. Of course, the heads of our floundering financial institutions and Wall Street may be in the process of displacing them as the welfare queens.

Although giving to nonprofit organizations, including the Church, is falling, community centers, homeless shelters and food pantries are experiencing more people coming through the door asking for help because of the collapse of the economy. No one has any idea when it will end. Each time the administration has announced another leg of its economic stimulus program, the Dow Jones Average has taken a tumble. There is no confidence, just panic.

Don’t get me wrong. I know times are tight. Our agency has frozen some parts of our budget and streamlined operations. Times are tight and scary. The economic crisis worries me and energizes my prayer life.

I hope we will avoid pushing that near mania into outright panic, though, and making hasty decisions we will soon regret. Some lines of Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If,” come to mind.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too; …

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

We should all take these words to heart. God does not deal in scarcity, but rather in abundance. This economic crisis is a human construct. If you have faith that God will provide abundant life, and realize that doesn’t mean big houses and fancy cars or private jets, then you can look forward, and won’t have to turn back.

Date: 2/23/2009

©2005-2009

As I walked to work this brisk morning, I wondered what the first day of a brand new semester would hold.  Could this be the beginning of new season of sharing the abundance of our resources with others? Will we join our intentions for health and renewal with our desire for lives that are more loving and gracious?  Is this the time for change?

Yes, change is everywhere.  From new classes to new presidential leadership, we are surrounded by change.  Today we are being challenged to change.  In the light of this new day, we are being called to reach out in love and share our abundance with the least, the lost and the lonely among us.  What a great opportunity!  What a wonderful challenge for us as we begin a new year that promises to be full of adventure and transformation!

Each New Year begins with a list full of new resolutions and new commitments.  I don’t know about you, but resolutions are not one of my strengths.  I always start out strong and crumble in the first few weeks.  We all know that change is hard; however, it is important to remember that change is not impossible!  Each day brings opportunities for change and transition.

As we begin again, I am reminded of the one for whom our University is named, John Wesley and his Covenant Renewal Service. During this New Year’s service, people recommit themselves to one another, to the work of the Gospel, and to being in relationship with God. The heart of the Covenant Renewal Service is the Covenant Prayer, which asks all of us to take an honest look at our lives of faith, to be aware of our need for God’s grace, to accept this grace and to commit ourselves to life-giving relationship with our Living God. In this hopeful season – a season of new beginnings, we are encouraged to renew our commitment to one another, to our University community and to God. 

The following is the prayer John Wesley wrote and we are encouraged to pray in this New Year:  I am no longer my own but yours.  Your will, not mine, be done in all things, wherever you may place me, in all that I do and in all that I may endure; when there is work for me and when there is none; when I am troubled and when I am at peace.  Your will be done when I am valued and when I am disregarded; when I find fulfillment and when it is lacking; when I have all things, and when I have nothing.  I willingly offer all I have and am to serve you, as and where you choose.  And now, O glorious and blessed God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are mine and I am yours.  May it be so forever.  Let this covenant now made on earth be fulfilled in heaven. Amen.

May it be so – now and forever.  Wishing you the gifts of God: hope, peace, joy, love, and renewal in this and every season.