Friday, January 06, 2006

block party: i got nothin'

the little baby jesus has just been born and now i have to think of something to write about for lent. can't we let the baby jesus hang out a little bit before we get all breathless for him to die?

i don't get lent. i mean, i 'get' it, but i'm so bad with it. i'm generally bad with the whole denial idea. (denial in the sense of 'doing without.') i grew up 'without'. i've already done that. not to say i'm a jabba the hut glutton, but i like my emollients; i do enjoy getting a manicure and having my eyebrows waxed by a detail-oriented asian woman. i miss going out to dinner every week. i sigh with longing when i see people throwing back a few cocktails in the middle of the week with abandon. i like indulgence! indulge me! pet me!

so what the frack am i supposed to say about lent and asceticism??

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hows about instead of thinking what you will deny yourself, think of what you can give of yourself. for instance, go volunteer to feed women at a women's shelter - or something akin to that. and offer to send one out for one of your manicure/pedicure things ;)

Delia Christina said...

you're right.
at church, every sunday evening, we serve supper to the homeless and deacons are supposed to volunteer for this duty. i did it once and it was so difficult, i've avoided it since.

jp 吉平 said...

Well, you can think about Jesus retreating to the desert, praying about the the path his ministry was to take. He managed to resist the temptations of a worldly empire, bringing a too-easy fix to hunger, to make a spectacle of his supernatural powers.

Instead, out of his lenten reflection came a ministry that amounted to non-violent movement against the Temple system.

You realize you have God-given power in this world; take 40 days to figure out how you're going to use it. Some options will be tempting. One option will change the world, but possibly cost you your life.