Discussing Nothing
February 28, 2007
A Brief Report from Truth and Grace Ventures:
Last Thursday, the Servants Quarters community gathered to discuss 40 Days of Nothing, our walk together through this season of Lent. In undertaking 40 Days of Nothing, we have entered a season of intense, deliberate reflection, self-denial and, hopefully, transformation. We are striving to limit our consumption to the basic necessities, resisting the empty promises of the world that we can find well-being through indulging our endless wants and instead focusing on God’s promise that His grace is sufficient.
The spirit of our discussion and the character of my new friends impressed me greatly. Our discussion topic, revolving as it did around radical self-denial, is not particularly attractive on its face. On the contrary, it seems to possess significant potential to generate feelings of depression and self-pity. In my opinion, though, our time together could be best characterized as joyful. Despite the nature of the material and its serious implications, the room was filled with laughter and joking and a sense of hope. Perhaps some would suggest that it was nervous laughter, but I believe the atmosphere was born of a common sense of peace not unease. These young leaders shared thoughts and stories evidencing not only a commitment to allow God to transform them, but a willingness to share that blessing with others. I believe that was the immediate reason for the hope permeating our time together.
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40 Days of Nothing
February 09, 2007
From the Truth and Grace Ventures Blog
When Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 21, the Servants Quarters community will embark on 40 Days of Nothing. As described in the Book of Common Prayer,
The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. [Likewise, we are invited] in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.
The Litany of Penitence for Ash Wednesday calls on us to confess, among other things,
the pride, hypocrisy and impatience of our lives, [o]ur self-indulgent appetites and ways, . . . our exploitation of other people, . . . our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves, [o]ur intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts, . . . our blindness to human need and suffering, . . . our indifference to injustice and cruelty, . . . our waste and pollution of [God’s] creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us . . . .
Having confessed, we turn to the Lord, praying that He would restore us and accomplish in us the work of His salvation so that we may reflect His glory in the world. This is why we will undertake 40 Days of Nothing, so that we may honor our Lord by deliberately and systematically identifying and removing obstacles that impede our relationship with Him.
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Everything and Without Ceasing: A Brief Reflection on Prayer
February 03, 2007
A couple weeks ago, I participated in the third and final weekend residence of the 2006 Centurions Program. Like the two prior residences, the time was marked by intense, humbling intellectual challenge and spiritual conviction, as we heard – and hopefully learned – from the likes of Peter Kreeft, Chuck Colson, Gary Haugen and Ken Boa. (Unlike before, my bride was allowed to accompany me, making for special, if not particularly romantic, memories.)
With the passage of a little time, it’s interesting to reflect on what ideas from that weekend hold fast within me. To this point, one question posed by T.M. Moore rings more loudly and regularly in my head than anything else: “What is it about ‘everything’ and ‘without ceasing’ that we don’t understand?” He was referring, of course, to St. Paul’s instructions that we pray about “everything” (Philippians 4:6) and “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). Undoubtedly, T.M.’s question haunts me, because I pray sporadically not continually. And on the continuum between nothing and everything, my prayer life lies closer to the former than the latter. I know better. Now I have to do better.
