Monday, Week One, Lent

Here we go. Lent is here, we've had the first "Sunday of," and now the disciplines are geared up one notch. The Renunciations have begun, and I have a second one coming up. It could be third, but I'm not sure. Things are thickening in my life plot.

A quote from today's Universalis, New Style and Still Good.

Let me turn to what is of less importance: the visible world around us. What benefactor has enabled you to look out upon the beauty of the sky, the sun in its course, the circle of the moon, the countless number of stars, with the harmony and order that are theirs, like the music of a harp? Who has blessed you with rain, with the art of husbandry, with different kinds of food, with the arts, with houses, with laws, with states, with a life of humanity and culture, with friendship and the easy familiarity of kinship?

That's from a Sermon by St. Gregory Nazianzen. There's a lot of comfort there, and encouragement to persevere until the last moment. Even with a couple of renunciations glaring into my future, there is deep comfort in knowing that no matter what type of suffering it brings, it will never separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus. That His total presence will only be met by my essentially ignoring him, even though I am thinking about it, breaks my heart.

Can I be small Lord Jesus? Can I sacrifice it all for you? Will you hold me if I fall? I know you will. I believe, help my unbelief.