Sundays

A few months back, I wrote the following without ever posting:

"Church on Sunday mornings is about the only thing that really makes sense to me right now. This is ironic, because on Sunday's Christians celebrate the mystery of Christ. This mystery makes perfect sense to me. I love Sunday mornings at church. I love sitting in a room filled with the faithful, singing, praying, listening, and celebrating the Eucharist. I love sacred music, in fact, sacred piano might be my absolute favorite type of music."

To continue in this vein, lent has helped me appreciate Sundays. After thinking about how Sundays made complete sense to me, there was a long stretch where I was not in church on Sunday. This was partly due to being in Korea, in addition to me having to work on Sundays (this forces me to attend an early service then leave from church to go to work). When the season of lent came around this time, I knew I needed to give somethings up. I decided to give up alcohol and candy.

Every Sunday in lent is a "feast day" because we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Because I have given two things I do sincerely enjoy, I have found myself looking forward to Sundays again. I must admit my thoughts about Sunday are initially sparked because I am going without stuff I like. But I think that this is almost the purpose of lent, to refocus my mind and heart on the stuff that matters most. I am finding my life to more productive than I had imagined. I am able to read stuff I want to read, in addition to being prepared for class. Last Sunday's sermon my preacher mentioned that the purpose we give up stuff during lent is so the gentle calling of God does not get drowned out with other things that distract us from God's prodding into our lives.

This lent has so far been an opportunity for me to look forward to celebrating the resurrection. The road to the celebration does involve personal reflection and repentance. In realizing how much I cover up the gentle proddings of God with stuff that is only temporal, I have realized how much more is wrong with me than I really wanted to know. But in all of this, there is still the upcoming joy of Sunday, the day of resurrection. It is an exciting and marvelous time. In this lent may you be challenged to see God working within you in new and incredible ways.