Lent

Media Free Car Rides/Tasks/etc (One Medium at a Time)

 “He says, ‘Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10

A Liturgy for Those Flooded by Too Much Information

In a world so wired and interconnected, our anxious hearts are pummeled by an endless barrage of troubling news. We are daily aware of more grief, O Lord, than we can rightly consider, of more suffering and scandal than we can respond to, of more hostility, hatred, horror, and injustice than we can engage with compassion.

But you, O Jesus, are not disquieted by such news of cruelty and terror and war. You are neither anxious nor overwhelmed. You carried the full weight of the suffering of a broken world when you hung upon the cross, and you carry it still.

When the cacophony of universal distress unsettles us, remind us that we are but small and finite creatures, never designed to carry the vast abstractions of great burdens, for our arms are too short and our strength is too small. Justice and mercy, healing and redemption, are your great labors.

And yes, it is your good pleasure to accomplish such words through your people, but you have never asked any one of us to undertake more than your grace will enable us to fulfill.

Guard us then from shutting down our empathy or walling off our hearts because of the glut of unactionable misery that floods our awareness. You have many children in many places around this globe. Move each of our hearts to compassionately respond to those needs that intersect our actual lives, that in all places your body might be actively addressing the pain and brokenness of this world, each of us liberated and empowered by your Spirit to fulfill the small part of your redemptive work assigned to us.

Give us discernment in the face of troubling news reports. Give us discernment to know when to pray, when to speak out, when to act, and when to simply shut off our screens and our devices and to sit quietly in your presence, casting the burdens of this world upon the strong shoulders of the one who alone is able to bear them up.

Amen.

No Negative Self-talk, Gossip or Complaining

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians 2:3-4

No Takeout Food or Restaurants/ Invite Someone Over for Dinner Who May Otherwise be Eating Alone

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 2:44-47

Donation (Or Spending Freeze)

I know, O Lord, that you are no petty tyrant, begrudging your creatures every passing happiness.
You have crafted a creation fraught with small pleasures, and have fashioned us with great capacity to enjoy pleasurable things.

So it is not from a sense of dour asceticism that I pause to question my desire to purchase a thing I suddenly want. It is, rather, because I have ample reason not to trust my reasons for wanting.

In hindsight I see how the history of my stewardship is spotted with the acquisition of costly things I might in sober judgment have foregone-

Things I have not used enough to justify their cost, things I could not well afford, things that actively warred against wise use of my time, luxuries that offered no true benefit, things purchased on impulse when a more reasoned and prayerful consideration might have led me to a better stewardship of your trust, O God.

So sensing now some warning sign embedded in this new desire to buy, I would first pause, asking that I might-under your Spirit’s right conviction-better divine my own motives unto the end that I might be wiser in my choosing.

If the dissonance I sense is a holy constraint, then increase that inhibition. Give me restraint to wait at least until that first, powerful impulse
passes, that I might make sound consideration.

Whether this purchase might in the end be wise or no, I would still wrestle well with the question, and so learn by practice to hobble my old habit of purchasing on flimsy whims.

This is hardly about the purchase of a thing anyway, is it, O God?
It is mostly about my heart, and what I treasure, and where I seek my satisfaction.

A Liturgy for the Washing of Dishes (Adapted from A Liturgy for Doing Laundry)

May I recall in this needful parable of soil and dishes, of soap and water and cleansing, the work which you have done for your people, O Christ, and the work which you are now doing, in me. Even as the waters are agitated and churned, stir by your Holy Spirit my heart and memory and conscience.