Hurray for Leap Day

It is my intent to put up a mini discussional/devotional each day of Lent. But, I may fall of that pace. I'd ask anyone who reads this to keep me accountable to it, however. Lent is a time for us to reflect and grow, and I feel that with each day bringing a new discussional/devotional and a prayer combining our program theme and Lent we can accomplish each of those in a better way. If you have a discussional/devotional for Lent that you'd like me to include, send it to me via e-mail at vicepresident@sigmatheta.org

If you're like me, you often wish you had a little more time. You often feel like there's not enough time to do everything on your plate, or like you'd like to take on more service opportunities, but just don't have enough time to fit it in.

Well, I'd like to think that with this being a leap year, and today being leap day, we've been given an extra 24 hours this year to get stuff done, to help other people, and to share the love of Christ.

How will you use the extra 24 hours? Will you play a little more World of Warcraft? Will you go outside and throw the football around? Will you play some John Madden Football on your PlayStation? Will you pray a little more? Will you seek out opportunities to love others, or to serve others, or to share the Gospel?

Think about what Jesus did when he was nearing the end of his time before the cross. What he did, and what he valued with that time.

And maybe together, we can take this extra time, and find the best use for it.

Join me in this prayer:

Sovereign Lord,

Thank you for the gift of time
For the ability to spend time
With You
For You
And representing You

Help us to find the best way to use this time
To bring glory to you
To shine love and light to others
And to find the things in life that are most important.

Bring me to atonement
Bring me to you
Bring me to love

Amen

Where's my Cliff?

It is my intent to put up a mini discussional/devotional each day of Lent. But, I may fall of that pace. I'd ask anyone who reads this to keep me accountable to it, however. Lent is a time for us to reflect and grow, and I feel that with each day bringing a new discussional/devotional and a prayer combining our program theme and Lent we can accomplish each of those in a better way. If you have a discussional/devotional for Lent that you'd like me to include, send it to me via e-mail at vicepresident@sigmatheta.org

Do you ever feel like a lemming? At least, how a lemming is thought of in popular culture? Someone who just follows the crowd, does what the leader is doing, and goes on with their day happily blissful that they don't have to question anything about their leadership?

As we journey through Lent, and make our journey to the cross, I grow increasingly thankful that Jesus was anything but a Lemming. He knew exactly when to challenge authority, when to speak up, and when to act and speak for a change. But, He also knew when to respect those placed in power, when to keep his mouth quiet, and when and where was the appropriate time and venues to challenge authority. We see a perfect example of this in Luke 11.

So, what then are we called to? Can we achieve this harmony? Can we find this balance of following, leading, and changing?

Or perhaps, we're just called to stand on the shoulders of the giants before us, and attempt with their knowledge and God's guidance to choose our own path, and to discern what we're called to. To find out own place and niche in the world.

I think what I'm trying to say is this: we're all being lead in our own unique direction. It's a beautiful and challenging thing about our God: He's as personal as He is omnipresent. So chances are, the cliff I'm supposed to be jumping off of, isn't the same cliff you're supposed to be jumping off of. So let's think about how we can help each other find our cliffs, shall we?

Join me in this prayer:

Sovereign Lord,

I thank You for being an example
Of many things I can strive to be
And many things I can strive to do

I thank you for those who have come before me
Who give me an example of what to do
And an example of how to think

I thank you for the Holy Spirit
And the guidance to discover what to do
And the guidance to discover my paths

And I thank you for the individuality
Of my life and my choices
And the joy I have through you in that

Bring me to atonement
Bring me to you
Bring me to love

Amen

National Religious Project: A Journal of why we trust God

So, this is inspired from my most recent discussional in my previous post.

Basically, I'm challenging us to journal, collectively, when God does something specific in our lives that proves to us why we should trust Him. I'm looking for stories big and small. Did God somehow allow you to keep your sanity at a family reunion? Did God somehow leave enough money in your bank account to pay all the bills that were due? Did God cure someone you know of cancer?

These things happen in our lives every day. And my challenge is that we journal them, so that we can be a bigger and better witness for Christ in our world.

You can add your entries as a comment to this post, or e-mail them to me vicepresident@sigmatheta.org, or you can post them in the thread at the national bulletin boards. What I'd like to do is then compile them into a book of some sort, and publish that to the brotherhood to have as a testament of encouragement. And hopefully, we'll get several volumes out of it. And, even better, we'll get an increase in our faith out of it.

Trust Him?

It is my intent to put up a mini discussional/devotional each day of Lent. But, I may fall of that pace. I'd ask anyone who reads this to keep me accountable to it, however. Lent is a time for us to reflect and grow, and I feel that with each day bringing a new discussional/devotional and a prayer combining our program theme and Lent we can accomplish each of those in a better way. If you have a discussional/devotional for Lent that you'd like me to include, send it to me via e-mail at vicepresident@sigmatheta.org

Lent can seem like a long time. Forty days, not counting Sundays, to prepare ourselves for the Cross and the Resurrection. I know it seems like a long time when you're trying to prepare a devotional for each day of Lent.

But what about forty years? That's a lot longer.

And that's how long God's people had to wait to get to the promised land, after they didn't trust him.

I think a lot of times we, in our own lives, both individually and corporately, lack that trust in God. When I'm not sure how I'm going to make all the bill payments this month. When I'm not sure if STE will be able to expand and grow. When I'm not sure if God really has a plan to use the rough parts of my life.

But I want to trust Him. I want to know He's there. So I have a challenge for us. Let's spend some time journaling the times in our lives, from this day forward, where God gives us reason to trust Him. Where he fulfills a promise.

And let's hope it doesn't take us forty years to trust him completely.

Join me in this prayer:

Sovereign Lord,

I am amazed
By your power
But I am overcome
By my doubt

Help me, Lord
To see You everwhere
To know You
And to trust You

Help me to see Your promises
Being kept all around me
In large ways and in small ways
In my everyday life

Bring me to atonement
Bring me to you
Bring me to love

Amen

What's in a World

It is my intent to put up a mini discussional/devotional each day of Lent. But, I may fall of that pace. I'd ask anyone who reads this to keep me accountable to it, however. Lent is a time for us to reflect and grow, and I feel that with each day bringing a new discussional/devotional and a prayer combining our program theme and Lent we can accomplish each of those in a better way. If you have a discussional/devotional for Lent that you'd like me to include, send it to me via e-mail at vicepresident@sigmatheta.org

I'm often amazed by the difference between what we see in the life of Jesus, especially on his journey towards the cross, and what we see in our modern word, especially in what is emphasized as important.

Compare, if you will, the difference between Jesus denying himself equality with God and the crowns and glory that go with it, and instead taking a cross and a brutal death, with the modern American Dream, to get all we can, and die with the most toys.

What a contrast. Live "beneath" who you are, and live a life of love and service, and end up defeating death, and being glorified forever more. Or, live at the top of your means, get everything money can buy you, and end up dead and forgotten by all but a select few.

Consider this, and reflect on this song by Caedmon's Call:

There's tarnish on the Golden Rule
And I wanna jump from this ship of fools
Show me a place where hope is young
And a people who are not afraid to love

This world has nothing for me
And this world has everything
All that I could want and nothing that I need

This world is making me drunk on the spirit of fear
So when You say, 'Who will go?"
I am nowhere near

Cause this world has nothing for me
And this world has everything
All that I could want and nothing that I need

But the least of these look like criminals to me
So I leave Christ on the street

This world has held my hand and has led me into intolerance
So now I'm breaking up, now I'm waking up
I'm making up for lost time

This world has nothing for me
And this world has everything
All that I could want and nothing that I need

What's in this world that's worth chasing? What's better for us, if we live a life of faith, love, and service?

Join me in this prayer:

Sovereign Lord,

Thank You
For giving me better
Than anything this world has to offer

Thank You
For being better
Than anything else the world could have

Thank You
For calling me to a life
Beyond the ways and means of this world

Bring me to atonement
Bring me to you
Bring me to love

Amen

Just Do It

It is my intent to put up a mini discussional/devotional each day of Lent. But, I may fall of that pace. I'd ask anyone who reads this to keep me accountable to it, however. Lent is a time for us to reflect and grow, and I feel that with each day bringing a new discussional/devotional and a prayer combining our program theme and Lent we can accomplish each of those in a better way. If you have a discussional/devotional for Lent that you'd like me to include, send it to me via e-mail at vicepresident@sigmatheta.org



Chances are, that image rings a bell. It's one of the better known and longer running marketing campaigns of all time.

But what does it have to do with Lent? And what does it have to do with the theme "Made for Love"?

I'll offer one theory. But be warned, my mind is far from normal or linear.

Often, around Christmas time, we get to hear and read and see people argue and get angry as they "debate" the "reason for the season". There is no debate at Easter. The reason of this season is simple. Christ was betrayed by one of his disciples. Christ was crucified for our sins. Christ rose from the dead.

That's it. That's why we have Easter.

And Lent is about preparing ourselves for Easter.

And so my question today is: what are you doing (and what am I doing) to prepare myself for Easter, and how am I doing that while keeping the theme of "made of love" in mind?

Whatever it is, just do it.

And join me in this prayer:

Sovereign Lord,

Help me to act
To do, and to be
What is required

Help me to recognize
That which I need to do
To be more wholly Yours

Help me in my preparation
For the remembrance of Your sacrifice
The joy of your resurrection
And the love we are called to as a result

Bring me to atonement
Bring me to you
Bring me to love

Amen.

Empty in new Light

It is my intent to put up a mini discussional/devotional each day of Lent. But, I may fall of that pace. I'd ask anyone who reads this to keep me accountable to it, however. Lent is a time for us to reflect and grow, and I feel that with each day bringing a new discussional/devotional and a prayer combining our program theme and Lent we can accomplish each of those in a better way. If you have a discussional/devotional for Lent that you'd like me to include, send it to me via e-mail at vicepresident@sigmatheta.org

Sundays in most traditions of Lent, and with anyone I've known that has practiced Lent, are traditionally viewed as "mini resurrections". They do not count towards the forty days of fasting/abstaining from *whatever*, and are days when we focus more on the resurrection than on the crucifixion. That will be my focus on Sundays, as well.

When I think of the word empty, it doesn't usually bring up good feelings.

I get sad when my bank account is empty. I'm very hungry when my stomach is empty. It's a pretty big bummer when my cupboards are empty.

Mary Magdalene was sad, too, about empty. When Jesus' tomb was empty on Easter morning, she was sad. She thought someone had stolen His body.

But when the truth was revealed to her, she was filled with joy. With this truth, an empty became a hope. And another thing in this crazy world of ours was turned upside down by Jesus' life and teaching.

Think about this, the next time part of our lives are empty, physically or metaphorically. Where can we find joy, where we don't expect to find it? Where can God turn our worlds upside down?

Join me in this prayer:

Sovereign Lord,

Thank You for that empty tomb
For the joy that is in my heart
Each day because of it

Thank You for emptiness in my life
And the ways You provide
To fill those holes

Thank You for all You are
For all You do.
For all You will do.

Thank you for atonement
Thank you for you
Thank you for love

Amen.