Reflecting on the First Week Of Lent.

Here are some excellent new posts for the Lenten synchroblog to reflect on during this first week of Lent.  Both of them have challenged me as I continue to reflect on my need to confront my own brokenness so that I can be transformed by the power of God.

JR Woodward reflecting on how brokenness can reveal itself in many forms including over activity.  Read more

Banu Moore reflecting on being broken in community and reminding us that reflecting on our sins is not meant to result in self preoccupation but rather in the desire to be changed more into the likeness of Christ.  Read more

You can read the list of all those who are participating in this blog here

Here at the Mustard Seed House we are participating in the Mutunga $2 challenge this week.  One of the advantages of doing this as a community is that we can eat our meals together over the week and easily create inexpensive meals that will feed multiple people.  In fact for last night my husband Tom made a huge pot of New Orleans style beans and rice that would have fed an army.  Ricci contributed home made bread and Dustin and Joy made salad.  We fed 16 people and still had enough left over for another meal later in the week.  I estimate that the average cost was less that $1 per person.

Of course participating in this is not just an exercise in cutting back nor just about freeing up money to contribute to the fight against poverty.  It is also about identifying with those millions around the world for whom eating on such a restricted budget is not a choice but a necessity.  At the same time it has reminded me of the children that have died in my arms because of hunger and malnutrition.   Hunger kills more people worldwide than anything else.   It leaves many others physically stunted and robs others of their ability to develop to their full God given intellectual potential. Yet it is so easy for me to ignore it.

Part of my own inner brokenness is my lack of comapssion for those who are dying every day because of hunger related diseases and I struggle with this on a daily basis.    I think it was Charles Finney who said that if we fully understood the love of God then we would be willing to walk across broken glass on our knees to save one sinner who would repent.  I think that more than that, if we fully understood the depth of God’s love for the hurting ones in our world then we would be willing to walk across broken glass to offer food and succour to one person who is hungry and in need and we would not stop until every person in world was provided for.