Next week we will be coming together for our Ash Wednesday Service. We are calling all of you to join us in participating in the Lenten season together!
Lent is described in many ways…but essentially what we want to take time to fast from something for 40 days. Why? Because Jesus did it. Because it gives us space to focus on what He did for us on the Cross. Because we feel in our bodies what it means to sacrifice ourselves so we can understand (even if it’s just slightly) what He sacrificed for us. And so we can understand what it means to give up ourselves…for others. That’s what fasting is. That’s what Lent is.
So this is an invitation to ‘give up’ something for the season of Lent–from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. But instead of giving up something purely for the sake of giving it up, I want us to think about how we can give something up…for others. What can you give up that will somehow help others?
Let’s brainstorm. Comment below and add your ideas!!
Sophia shared a video (above) and some insight after hearing the message at youth group the other night. Here is what she had to say…
“The other night, Ryan was talking about what we live for, and what the goal of our lives is. Dan talked before hand about how he had made his idol and also his main focus volleyball and competition…so, I was thinking about what Ryan was talking about, and it really reminded me of the idea of a single story–How we can have this mindset, especially if we’ve been somewhere for a really long time (such as church) and have come to accept certain things as factual–when they’re actually not all that set in stone. In fact, we might be seeing things from completely opposite sides and it takes a counter story to help us realize how crazy our thoughts and beliefs actually are.”
How does the Gospel ‘counter’ the story that you’ve lived in or believed?
Yesterday, we talked about the truth about our bodies. We all, at different points in our lives, have probably felt somehow uncomfortable in our bodies. We feel self-conscious, we feel ashamed, we wonder what others think, there is a deep longing in our bodies for something.
A lot of it has to do with image. We based our self-identity, in many ways, in how we look. We are hard-wired in our culture to think this way. We stand in front of the mirror and are obsessed (well over 90% of both men and women would change something about the way they look if they could). We want to be accepted, so we focus on the way we ‘look’ to other people. And we judge and accept (or not) others by the way they look as well.
But there is more…there is more going on in our bodies than just how we look. We do things to our bodies and use our bodies for all sorts of reasons. We cut our bodies to ease pain or to cope with some difficult reality in life. We eat…or don’t eat, to feel like we have control and to feel better about life. We intoxicate ourselves with all sorts of things to feel good and to numb ourselves to certain realities that we are faced with. You get the point.
As I mentioned last night, it is no wonder that this is the case. Genesis 3 tells us that the very first consequence of the Fall, of sin entering in our existence, was that Adam and Eve became self-conscious about their bodies–”Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.” Sin has broken us from the inside–and no longer are we comfortable in our own skin.
That is why Jesus came into this world as a human body. He, who was God, become embodied, and gave up his own body to death, so that we, in our bodies, might be restored.
And then Paul comes along in 1 Corinthians 6 and shares with us the well-known passage: “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you?” What exactly does he mean by this? This was our focus last night.
Here are the two things I shared:
1. The body, soul, and spirit were always meant to be one. They were never intended to be separate aspects to who we are…and in many ways, we have to see them as joined together. What you do with your body, affects your spirit, and vice-versa. We may talk about them as separate things–but we must remember that our bodies are just as important as our soul and spirit–because they are completely intertwined.
2. Our bodies long for the Spirit’s indwelling. In all of the ways in which we are uncomfortable in our own skin, in all of the ways we know that all is not well in our bodies…that signifies that reality that we long for connection to the Holy Spirit–for Him to dwell inside of us. To make us right again. And I believe that is only when we allow the Spirit to move inside of us that that longing, that uncomfortableness, that constant self-consciousness–will be healed and restored.
Alright…so getting back to the video above. If you remember, I talked about King David and about his response to the ark of the covenant being returned to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6. The symbol of the presence of God was returning to Jerusalem, and David’s response was to dance with all of his might. Now his wife, Michal, went to him and basically said, “do you realize you are dancing half-naked in front of all these people?” And what was David’s response? “I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” This story must be held up against the story in Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve sinned, God’s presence left them, and they were self-conscious about their bodies. When the presence of God returned to Jerusalem, David could care less about what people thought of him…his response was to dance with all of his might.
This got me to thinking. Dance is a powerful experience to perform and to witness. Somehow, in my opinion, what we see in someone dancing is not just their body moving, but their soul and spirit moving along with their body. So much is expressed in dance. For David, no one doubted what was going on inside of him. And when we encounter the beauty of dance, what I see is the reality that Paul spoke of…that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are not just physical beings. We are more than that. We are spiritual, emotional, physical beings all wrapped up in one. And we should never separate those things. Dance reminds me of that.
As you watch the video above, think about the relationship between spirit and body. Do you see how they come together in the dance you see?
In your life, do you know the Spirit’s presence inside of you? Do you desire to express that presence, perhaps not through dance, but in other ways in your life?
Or maybe you can feel and know that longing inside of you for the Spirit’s presence. Are you willing to allow God in to make you whole again…to restore your life to newness?
Let us sit in the presence of God
Confident of his goodness and mercy
May his love surround us
His Spirit fill us
His truth guide us
- Light for the Journey
Daily Word
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