First Feast Day

Probably the only reason that this Lenten fast works for me is because of the weekly feast day.  I didn't realize until three years ago that, even though a typical Lent observance is 40 days, the actual time period from Ash Wednesday to Easter is 46 days.  Some Christian traditions use those extra days (typically Sundays) as feast days in the midst of the fast.  That's the beautiful thing of the A Place at the Table fast.  The Sundays are feast days.

It may be because those first four fast days seemed so long, but this first feast day of Lent was glorious. As was my tradition last year, my feast day began with a Reese's product (this time a PB heart) just after midnight.  While this is probably cheating, it has become one of my favorite Lent traditions.  This time, the Reese's product was washed down with a Woodhouse Cider, meaning that I consumed almost as many calories before going to bed as I typically did in an entire fast day.  Then, I woke up to a fresh cup of coffee (with creamer!!) and waited for our community to come over.  The plan was pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fruit for breakfast, and it was fantastic.  All of the four core families are doing some sort of fast this year, so it was a wondrous Sunday morning for us.  The smell of bacon (and the knowledge that I could eat some!) was a sacred thing!  I never even needed a plate.  I picked up a piece of bacon every time I walked past the serving plate, thus allowing me to have no real idea how much bacon I ate.

Breakfast was so good that, despite the fact that feast day only comes once a week, we skipped lunch.  We were still full from bacon!  It didn't help that church went until around 1:30.  We made plans to meet some of our favorite people for dinner, and that turned out to be a great joy.  The Milners are some mentors of ours and we just never seem to have time in our schedules to hang out.  So an evening at 50th Street Caboose was just perfect.  The grilled chicken sandwich (with bacon and cheese) was perfect with sweet potato fries.  The conversation was fantastic, the Milner kids kept T occupied, and it was nice to have some adult time.

As I was finishing up the day with some laundry and cleaning, I reflected on my first feast day.  And it might have been that bacon was what made it such a great day.  Bacon makes most everything better.  But I think it was the people that made Sunday so great.  Singing songs in my living room with kids screaming out that "God's not dead, He's surely alive, and he's living on the inside, roaring like a lion." Standing around the griddle making pancakes and bacon while laughing.  Hanging out after "church" for an hour to just catch up.  Eating a good meal with some of our favorite people.  It was a reminder of what is truly important.  I can live without most of the food pleasures of life.  But I could never survive without community.  Without friends.  Without people.

That's what life is truly about.

A Place at the Table, Year 2

Two years ago, Wendy and I were visiting one of my favorite people who happens to work at our favorite church (www.ecclesiahouston.org) when we were introduced to a new way to view Lent.  Having grown up in a good, evangelical, protestant church, I had never really given Lent a whole lot of thought.  It was chalked up as "one of those odd things that Catholics do."  However, one of the men that I admire greatly, Chris Seay, was in the midst of a Lenten experiment that later became chronicled in a book entitled A Place at the Table: 40 Days of Solidarity with the Poor (buy it on Kindle here: A Place at the Table).

Last year, a group of us from the 8th Day Collective jumped into Lent with both feet.  If you search back through my blog, you can find last year's thoughts.  It was an amazing, painful, bonding experience for me personally and for us as a church.  The basic premise of the challenge is this: Lent is the 46-day period from Ash Wednesday to Easter.  During the 40 days (excluding the 6 Sundays), the challenge is to eat only foods that your Compassion/World Vision/CRF/etc. child would have access to.  Then, on Sundays, you can eat whatever you want in whatever quantity.  (You'd better believe that there was a lot of BACON consumed by our church on Sundays!)  The hope of the challenge is that, through the experience and the devotional at the back of A Place at the Table, we would develop a deeper appreciation for the plight of those around the world who live in poverty.  (Interesting side note: Apparently there is a movie coming out of the same title that explores the plight of some 50 million Americans who don't know where their next meal will come from.)  Then, you take the money that you would have regularly spent on food and give it to a charitable organization of your choice, preferably one that is doing something about the plight of the poor.

Even though it seems like just yesterday that we did this, it has been a year, and the Lenten season is back upon us.  So, the challenge is back as well.  And with two days of the fast over, I'm not sure I'm gonna make it.  I don't remember beans, rice, potatoes, bread, and black coffee being quite this boring.  (Actually, I DO remember the black coffee being this boring.) On Ash Wednesday, I walked out of lunch hungry, wondering how long it was until dinner.  And at dinner, that baked potato with nothing but salt was about as bland as a Physics lecture.  Wendy assures me that it was just as bad last year, but this has a different feeling.  Maybe I should go back and read my own blog from last year and remember just how miserable I was.

It's pretty disappointing, really.  I have gotten so used to whatever I want whenever I want it that there seems to be no need for discipline.  No need for Jesus.  No need grace.  Whereas last year's challenge led me into a deep appreciation of the plight of the poor, maybe this year's challenge will lead me deep inside my own psyche to remind me just how poor I really am.  How much I need Jesus.  How much I should depend on grace.

But I sure am hungry today.