Ideas for Lent.
Graceland will be hosting some reflections for the coming Lent season and would appreciate your thoughts/ideas.
Lent commences this year on 21st Feb.
Jesus spent 40 days in the desert, fasting & praying, preparing a mission, fighting temptation, working through his calling. Then in the early church, Lent was the time for new Christians to learn the faith, & for the rest to devote themselves to prayer & fasting, a spring cleaning of the soul in readiness for the journey to come.
Maybe you’ve spent some time in a spiritual desert & are looking to press through, maybe you’ve never “done” Lent but it can be the provison of some real “soulfood”.
Should we give something up for 40 days?
Should we give something different up each day?
Should we GIVE something for Lent?
How can this season inform & inspire us in our journey back to God?
Here are some starter ideas (COURTESY OF VARIOUS BLOGS) but Graceland would love your input so let us know what you think?
Go mobile-free for a day, or better a week & use the space to be still.
Give up caffeine for 40 days & detox your body and brain!
Recycle Something
Create a moan-free zone. Refuse to complain for a day or allow others to moan around you!
Research on the internet what Lent is. Understand better.
It would be great to have 40 different things we could try for each day of Lent so get your creative thinking cap on.
3 comments:
Hmmmm. 40 ideas for 40 days. Good idea Graceland !!
Here are some of my initial thoughts -
* build on the 'create a moan free zone' - be intentionally postive towards others - tell people what you appreciate about them - dare i say write a note/ email/ text/ make a phone call to tell someone you appreciate them
* give up chocolate/ chinese/ wine -whatever your 'wind down' spoil yourself thing is - giev the money you save to a charity
* read a book by someone you would not normally read - if you read emerging church type folks (Rob Bell/ Shane Claiborne or the like) read something written before postmodernism arrived & vice versa. Take soem time to rediscover faith from a different perspective.
Will have a think & post some more ideas on my blog (www.deirdresthoughts.blogspot.com) over the next few days.
apologies for the typos !
I found these ideas from 'the simple way'. They are geared towards camous students but could be adapted. The 'Simple way' is a community that Shane Claibourne is heavily involved in.
Remember.....It is easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting.
*Go out to eat with someone who is homeless, or invite them to your home or cafeteria to eat with you.
Leave a random tip in the college bathrooms for the folks who clean them.
*Find out who makes the clothes for the athletic department and if those companies reflect the values of Christ.
*Learn to sew and begin making your own clothes.
Start tithing 10% of all income directly to the poor.
*Connect with a group of farmworkers who grow food for your cafeteria or favorite restaurant.
*Give your winter coat away to someone who is colder than you are.
*Ask to see the budget of your school. What do the workers get paid compared to the administrators? Make sure folks know -- if you are proud of this, affirm the folks who make those decisions... If not, begin a conversation with both workers and administrators of how this could be better.
*Ask where the campus gets its energy. Is it renewable? If not begin a plan for moving toward renewable energy (talk to folks at Eastern University about how they have done it by an optional ecological tax that is tacked onto tuition -- it's only a few dollars per student).
*Write one CEO a month -- affirm or critique the ethics of their company (you may need to do a little research).
*Write only paper letters for a month (go computer free)
*Try sitting in silence for 15 minutes a day.
*Kill your TV -- or go TV free for a year.
*Go down a line of parked cars and pay for the meters that are about to expire... Leave a little anonymous note of niceness.
*Beat a war machine into a plow, without hurting anyone of course (Isaiah 2:4) -- NOTE: you might want to plan on a little sabbatical after this one, a little reading and writing retreat -- in jail.
*Write to one social justice organizer or leader each month, just to encourage them in their work.
*Experiment with a post-oil era by going fuel free for a week -- ride a bike everywhere, carpool, walk or hitchhike.
*Gut your TV and turn it into a pot for a plant.
*Try reading only female writers for a year (since many of our problems seem to be stemming from men).
*Go to a retirement home and ask to visit a few old folks who don't get any visitors.
*Spend some time with someone who cleans the campus, get to know each other, share your stories.
*Invite one of the college cafeteria staff to your home for dinner or go to their home.
*Try jack-hammering the church parking lot to make space for potato plants.
*Track to its source one item you eat regularly
*Give your car away to a stranger
*Convert a diesel car to run off veggie oil.
*Try flushing your toilets off dirty sink water.
*Buy only used (thrift) clothes for a year.
*Cover up all brand names, or at least the ones that do not reflect the upside down economics of God's Kingdom.
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