Reconciliation

Well, I have to be honest, I am glad I am done with 7 foods. I had some realizations about how I think about/rationalize/eat food- which was interesting to me. But I will admit, I wasn't as thorough as a follower as I should have been.

Maybe in retrospect, it was a good idea to do the foods before the Ash Wednesday, because the week was a concrete example of "screwing up." And today is a beautiful day of reconciliation-- and a new start.

I found this great devotion to share today:

Today, Ash Wednesday, is the first day of Lent. In some traditions people will go to church and get ashes smeared onto their forehead as the minister says, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” This act is humbling and grounding. It is a way of remembering that God created you from dust, and you will return to the dust, thus returning to God.

This is a day of reconciliation, of being joined back together with God, of being reunited with the one who made you. This is a day of intentionally stopping to remember that we are made in the image of God and we are to treat others as the image of God. This is a day of consciously living in the knowledge that God made us, that Jesus came among us as servant that we might know God better, and that God continues to live among us as the Holy Spirit. Today is a day of reconciliation and being reunited. Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

It is from d365.org. I guess it is a site that does devotionals everyday... cool.

I love the image that God created me (Dust)... and I will return to God (Dust). In the meantime, here on earth, I am given great opportunities to serve God. Not that what I do has to be so great... but if I can stay focused not only on God's call... but on reconciliation, I can be "freed" in a sense. Freed to screw up- to eat chips when I am supposed to be eating a pear- but to have my heart focused on God and serving him and his people.

Okay- enough of that- here is the benediction from the same site- I need this on a post-it that I can see everyday:

Move now into the broken world.
Travel with an intense determination
To find your way into healing,
To take the message of reconciliation
With you, Within you,
For everyone.