I have never partook in the Lent season - mostly because it was not a part of the traditions of my religious upbringing and because I didn't really want to.

I didn't even know what a Fat Tuesday was until I moved to Michigan a few years ago and I've never had ash, smudged in the form of a cross on my forehead - but I have hunted for eggs, which has about as much relevance to Easter as Santa does to the birth of Christ [reminds me of Jim Gaffigan's take on religious holidays].

But this year I have decided to challenge myself to give up a bad habit for 40 days (in hope to rid it or at least get it under control). If you know me, you probably know I have an addiction to candy that is humorous and ridiculous. I honestly am addicted - I love sugar and eat it all the time, with 2 root canals in the past 12 months to prove it. But because I don't have to stop, I don't - my wife genuinely is scared I'll become diabetic because of it.

So, I am giving up candy for 40 days because I can, because I don't need it, because I'll be healthier for it and because I compulsively eat it all the time (no lie). So I don't know much about Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and I don't get the Easter Bunny, hollow-chocolate-shaped things, plastic-candy-filled eggs and especially those gross marshmallow peeps, but I do want to be a disciplined person and pursue God's best for my life. Not that a lack of candy is that, but it is a means to that for me.

Thoughts on Lent? Are you giving anything up?

Over the past few days I've been really challenged to rethink a few areas of my life - realizing how easy it is to be lulled to sleep in our consumerist society. I don't want to just live life as everyone else does, accepting that 'this is just the way it is.'

I recently read a quote by Zygmunt Bauman, a renowned sociologist of our time. He said,

A life so fragmented stimulates "lateral" rather than "vertical" orientations.

The full quote depicted the shortcomings of our modern lives. He described how there are fewer social structures to support "long-term thinking, planning and acting." And how when our lives are so compartmentalized, between work, family, friends, faith, hobbies, etc, etc, our progress in life is slowed and more lateral than forward.

I haven't been able to get that thought out of my head. I want my life to move forward, I want to progress in life in a direction that makes me better. I want to be able to think outside our cultural standards for life, ethics and success. I'm realizing that without intentionality my progress will be, at best, lateral in life.

I started reading a new book that I've really been enjoying called Transformational Architecture by Ron Martoia. So far it has been really good. Basically he is setting out to recapture the narrative of God's story and replace the abbreviated version we often live by.

But one of the analogies he uses is that of a gerbil wheel and how the American Dream is always spinning and at work as the background narrative in our lives. He builds a simple, but profound description of how we are always chasing it, but it is never fully reached and is never able to give what it promises. It is interesting to note that despite your religious background, gender, socioeconomic status - we are all affected by it. And like a gerbil on a wheel, we all stand the chance to look back on our life and realize we ran hard but got nowhere. Here's how Ron says it,

The universality of this dream is precisely what makes it so difficult to identify as a motivator of human life. The American Dream is quiet but powerful, an enormous daily motivator and yet hidden from our eyes because its presence is so obvious and accepted as the "way things are."

It took me back to this post, 'Inconvenienced by Convenience' and my struggle to align my life goals with something greater than the American Dream of having and consuming. I'm working hard to be more conscious of what I let define my success and who I seek approval from - but it is a hard thing to get out from under this American Dream. I want the narrative of my life to be written by the hand of God and His faithfulness, not patched together by being someone I'm not in a culture that is so often empty.

Thoughts?

When I think of stories from the bible and their lessons, their value comes not just in that they happened, but that they happen. If the story of Moses, the burning bush, the 7 Plagues, the freeing of millions of Hebrew slaves from Pharaoh, ect, is currently happening, it is seen in God's constant pursuit of His creation and desire to free us from that which enslaves us.

It is interesting to see the 7 Plagues through the lens of the Egyptians of that time. Each plague showed the dominance of I AM, the God of a Hebrew named Moses over the gods the Egyptians worshiped. And though I never want to be accused of 'over-spiritualizing' it is not hard to imagine current day plagues coming in the form of an economic down turn, a credit crisis, global uncertainty, the rising unemployment of not just 'others', but much closer to home with our friends and our families. It is not a far stretch to see God's hand moving to realign His creations perspective and dependency from themselves to the only thing that is truly constant.

In a number of recent conversations, many people are feeling the inconvenience of all our modern day conveniences. And for those who subscribe to the teachings of Jesus, our constant struggle with faith and life has been so diluted in the conveniences of our consumerist culture. If we are honest, we know little about true dependency on God, because we have rarely had to depend on Him for anything. A problem we have not yet fully come to realize.

But as our world continues to seemingly fall apart, at least for a moment we are gaining new clarity. A clarity we had previously only scratched the surface of, but never really wanted to come to grips with, or needed to for that matter. And consumerism has not just replaced our need for dependence on God, it also offers services to handle our identity, security and stated value in this world. It tells us that we can be who ever we want, pursue a life of comfort, consume more than is needed, live beyond our means to somehow achieve the 'dream.'

May we all take heed of the moment and reevaluate our priorities, dependencies and securities. If we are learning one thing, the economy, our leaders, the dollar, banks, CEO's, pensions and the so called American Dream are fleeting and lack the substance to offer us little more than self-centered quick-fixes. May we all seek something bigger than ourselves, something with an eternal perspective that gives us mission for this lifetime and lives on when we die. I'm convinced that at the end of my life my regrets will hinge on my selfish pursuits and not what I did and sacrificed for others.

If we could wear our faith like a Letterman Jacket, it would look quite different; quite different in the unusual usual way of Gods upside down kingdom. A faith whose power stems from the foolishness of man, from the innocence of a child, from the humility of broken people and from the boasting in ones weakness not strength.

If we could wear our faith as a statement of who we are, it would be so different than others. Our world endorses the perceived power of ones own ability. Our society accomplishes itself by consuming to no end, in a world that believes success is defined by how much you own. Our culture gives lip services to the ideas of character and generosity that merely scratches the surface. Our worlds idea of sacrifice is to give in proportion to what you'll get back, absolutely strings attached and does more for your sponsors and your own PR.

Our culture adorns it's Letterman in what man has conquered, in what man's athletic ability has achieved, in what power man's intellect possesses. The American culture letters in physical beauty and medals in fictitious standards of size, shape, color and style. We commit to being lifetime Letterman of consumerism, medalist in the square footage of our homes, the sportiness of our cars and the number of unused toys in our garage. We know it doesn't bring happiness, but the bigger our TV's are, the more channels we have access to, the more gadgety toys we possess, the better we feel about ourselves and our lives (and we have the mortgages, the car loans and the credit card bills to prove it).

But if we could wear our Christian faith, like a Letterman, it would counter our cultural ideals with humility and simplicity. We would adorn ourselves in how often we've failed and how our God's faithfulness is written through out those failures. We would medal in being more child-like; learning, asking and enjoying the world God has created. We would speak not of what we have done, but rather of what God's grace has accomplished in our lives. The Christian Letterman would not put on the facade of perfection as so many other jackets do in our culture, but would whole-heatedly admit to the fragility of our broken human condition and the greatness that lies in the story of Jesus.

But maybe the real question does not revolve around if we could wear our faith, but rather if we could more accurately follow our faith?

So the guy who brought porn back to the Church through XXXChurch.com, then started the anti-consumerism, non-profit 'Junky Car Club' - continues to challenge the followers of Jesus to be more authentic.

“'Love Takes Balls' is about discovering the limits of our own love and then learning to throw away those limits.

It’s about redefining love using God’s example - boundless, with no quid-pro-quos. Expecting–and sometimes getting–nothing back in return. It takes courage, strength, and total commitment to love like this."

Love definitely takes balls - at least the kind of love the Jesus spoke of and lived out.

Thoughts?

Spiritual pathways to God; Creation, Relational, Contemplative, Serving, Worship, Intellectual and Activism.

Serving.

If you went to my church, you'd know that serving's name is John and Melanie White. The two most giving, dedicated and servant-minded people I know. They love to give of their time and talents for the community - it's what they do. Another friend of mine once said, ‘If I'm not doing something for my church community, I'm not growing.’ For him, the serving pathway was his life line to God and I would assume it is the same for the White's.

For me it doesn't come that easy and I have no problem exercising my 'NO' muscle, but I have become convinced that the best thing I can do with my life is serve others. Cliché - yes, but also true. Looking back on my life, I will not regret the time I spent serving others, but I will regret the time I spent serving my self in this consumerist culture.

So if serving is your pathway then it comes easy for you and the rest of us have to be reminded to prioritize it. Regardless, serving has the same benefits for all. I've never gone on a community serving project or a mission’s trip and felt like I was wasting my time. It always reminds me how blessed I am and always makes me feel more connected with God. And I guess that's because it connects me with God's heart - those experiences connect me with one of God's earliest commandments to us, use our blessing to bless others.

Actually now that I’m thinking about it, the fondest memories I have from growing up, the ones that most defined who I am today, were experiences where I was serving others.

What about you?