A Lenten Prayer

We're coming up on the fourth Sunday of Lent (and it's APRIL!). How is the season treating you? In addition to "a dollar a day for forty days," my other Lenten discipline this year has been giving up game shows - my own personal fast. I know, it sounds pretty lame, and it's not like I would consider myself unhealthily "addicted" to game shows. It's just that they have a tendency to become a time-suck in my life. Here's the deal: Grant really likes to watch the nightly news. Back when Marit was born we cancelled our DirecTV, and got an antenna. We now get CBS, the CW and five (yes, five!) different PBS channels. But that's it. No ABC, no NBC, no Fox, not even the Weather Channel!! So, our network news options are limited, and we watch the CBS news at 5pm on the nights we're home and not at church or out and about. Then the local news comes on at 5:30. All good. At some point dinner gets fixed, and if inertia takes hold, the TV stays on, as background noise, if nothing else, for Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. Without thinking too much about it, it becomes entirely too easy for me to watch two hours of television. Well, not anymore. No game shows for me these days. It's good - Grant and I have more time to read to each other (we're reading The Message - Eugene Peterson's translation of the Bible, outloud to each other this year) and to have real conversations. It's amazing how much I can actually get done in that hour if I want to, and how a fast isn't for the sake of the thing you're giving up, but in order to feast on something else.
Are you fasting from something this year? Is it as simple as turning off the TV? Are you fasting from facebook? From a favorite food? Here's a prayer to help us expand our thoughts, and discipline, around fasting this Lent:
A Lenten Prayer
Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ indwelling in them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
Fast from worry; feast on trust.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from hostility; feast on nonviolence.
Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from discouragement; feast on hope.
Fast from facts that depress; feast on truths that uplift.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
Fast from suspicion; feast on truth.
Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Gentle God, during this season of fasting and feasting, gift us with your presence so we can be a gift to others in carrying out your work. Amen.
William Arthur Ward (1921-1994)
(American author, educator, motivational speaker)