Lent: 40 Days Of Self-Aggrandizing Pseudo-Sacrificial Piety

Lent… it’s not just the stuff in your belly button.

It’s supposed to be a time for Christians to draw closer to their Maker, to become more Christ-like, more holy, more sanctified… to be more set apart to do His work on this Earth.

Instead, Lent has become nothing more than a self-serving, self-aggrandizing moment of pseudo-sacrificial piety in much the same way as Easter or Christmas has become secularized. It’s piss-poor, utterly worthless, and without any redeeming cultural, social, spiritual, or religious value.

Where does “giving up” chocolate, liquor, teevee, or red meat on Fridays for 40 days improve one’s spiritual life?
Seriously?

Some have expressed sympathy for this expression, as if it were my experience.

I never said that was my experience.
It’s “my estimation” based upon observation.

My observation is precisely that Lent has

Spiritual Food For Thought: Becoming Closer To Heaven

Here’s food for thought for the spiritually minded and religious:

As humans, we are often found despising change.

Honestly, we hate it, and wish it never happened.

We like awakening and knowing our socks & underwear are going to be in the same drawer, in the same dresser, in the same location as yesterday, last week, last month, and last year. There’s comfort in that thought.

And yet, we are found as

From Here To There: A Brief Journey In Life

Having been raised in the Methodist church, over time, I had “been around” in various Christian traditions

– including participation in by membership in some – 

such as:

• independent
• inter-denominational
• trans-denominational
• non-denominational
• make-your-own church
• Pentecostal (talking in tongues, dancing, but no snake handling)
• Church of God
• Church of Christ
• Church of God in Christ
• Baptist (hard shell, soft shell, primitive, mainline, and corn on the cob varieties)
• Cumberland Presbyterian
• Presbyterian
• Seventh-Day Adventist
• Lutheran
• Evangelical Protestant
• Episcopal
• Anglican (Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin – Southern Cone, while in California)

and then, finally…

There’s something to be said for mothers

1“Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord,^a for this is the right thing to do. 2“Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: 3If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”^b

4“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.” cf.Ephesians 6:1-4 NLT

Politically, it certainly seems that Southerners have been more often wrong, than correct.

And today, continuing the tradition of Radical Liberal Republicans who endeavor to remove voting rights and foist more atrocities upon the nation, they continue to be “right” about being wrong.

Consider the following:

SUNDAY Aug. 18, 2013

“On this date in 1920, the 19th Amendment

Music great Bob Dylan: “Wussies & pussies” claim plagiarism

Bob Dylan says plagiarism charges made by “wussies and pussies”

8:17pm EDT
By Chris Francescani

U.S. musician Bob Dylan (R) performs on the second day of the Hop Farm Music Festival in Paddock Wood, Kent June 30, 2012. Credit: Reuters/ Ki Price

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bob Dylan has angrily responded to charges he plagiarized some of his lyrics, calling critics “wussies and pussies” and saying musical appropriation is “part of the folk tradition.”

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine for its Friday edition, the influential singer-songwriter made his first public comments on the accusations, saying that in folk and jazz music “quotation is a rich and enriching tradition.”

“Everyone else can do it but not me,” he complained. “There are different rules for me.”

Rolling Stone released excerpts of the interview on Wednesday and Reuters obtained a complete transcript.

In 2003, the Wall Street Journal reported that

The Practical Side to Commitment for Husbands & Wives

Periodically, in this blog I have shared tips for spouses – husbands & wives – to improve the quality of their marriage. Typically, those entries have been from other reputable sources, not merely my opinion, nor something from a popular consumer magazine that presents the relationship “flavor of the day.”

Love, it has been said, is a commitment – it is neither exclusively, nor merely a good feeling based upon a mutual attraction, sexual or otherwise. Because love is a commitment, there are certain things that one should do to honor and demonstrate the commitment. Oftentimes as well, those commitments have been unspoken – although they may occupy significant real estate silently in our imaginations. It is precisely those times that the unspoken should be spoken.

With an eye toward speaking the unspoken, I share with you the following.

List of 20 Absolute Face-to-Face Commitments

 By Paul D. Refior

Copyright 1994, 1998 and 2005

You will certainly agree that marriage is infinitely more than a list of do’s and don’ts.

Yet one of the problems these days is that so many couples fail or refuse to acknowledge important do’s and don’ts, and these couples do not make or fulfill important commitments and promises.

God… with a big I and my Rose

Sometimes, things aren’t always what they seem. Some call it ‘the irony of life,’ though it may be known by other names. It is indeed fascinating to note that what we see is often not what it is – or the true nature of a thing. There are reams and volumes galore of books written upon such the subject, which touches upon art, science, philosophy and religion.

Recently, having been blessed by reading an old prayer that indeed succinctly expressed the irony of life through faith, I had decided to share it with a dear friend.

Following is his response, then the prayer:

I think I first encountered this prayer while

Godly Social Values

You know, Jim, as I continue to reflect upon the issues about which we spoke this evening, I – being an ardent observer of