Quinquagesima, or the Sunday next before Lent,
March 3rd, 2019
Like so many of you, I scan social media. Most of the time I just scroll through and move on. Every once in a while I read something that causes me to step back and reflect on what it says. Recently, I had one of those very moments. The post read: "You are killing yourself for a job that would replace you within a week if you dropped dead. Take care of yourself." Reading these words truly did cause to think about its' meaning. I would agree. Those of us who work. Those of us who have careers. Those of us who take our jobs seriously. I would imagine most of us have been in this position at one point or another. We run around like the proverbial "chicken with its' head cut off" trying to accomplish everything that we need to do. We try to jam Twenty hours worth of work into an Eight hour work day. We prioritize all the things that needed to be done "five minutes ago." All the while we try to "put out the fires" that spring up without notice. We try to cover all the bases. And it's just not the job where this is the case. We try to do the best at our career; take care of our home; take care of our family; take care of ourselves; raise children; go shopping; find time to relax; etc. The list goes on and on. And the sad thing is that we are not only killing ourselves for our jobs. Sometimes we are killing ourselves for people that are only using us. Sometimes we are killing ourselves to maintain an image. Sometimes we are killing ourselves to "fit in" with a crowd that is not really worth our time. Again, the point of the meme referenced above is to "Take care of yourself." In other words, we need to prioritize what is really important in life. Yes, we need to work. Yes, we need to take care of our home. Yes, we need to spend time with our family. We need to do all of these things. But that being said we also have to put priorities in life. That is part of the problem as well. Sometimes our priorities are all messed up. We place our careers ahead of our family. We place popularity ahead of being true to ourselves. We place greater value on attaining wealth than doing what's right. And through all of this we need to remember God. We need to have God in our lives. We need to make time for God. We make "time" for everything that is important to us. If we really want to see a movie, we will make time to watch it. If we really want to exercise, we will find time to do it. But how much time do we spend with God each day? How much time do we dedicate to reading the Bible each day? How about Sundays? Are we too busy on Sunday to get up and go to church? Maybe we're too exhausted from all our activities the other six days of the week to go to church on Sunday. If it is important to you, you will find time for it. Lent is a good time to step back and reflect on what we have done in life. Lent provides us with time to focus on what is important. Lent allows us to reflect on what we have done wrong . .. where we have missed the mark . . . and where we have fallen short. But more importantly, Lent allows us the opportunity to focus on what is ahead of us: Easter. Lent gives us the opportunity to look ahead. Thus, Lent is truly a season of hopefulness. Let us spend the next forty days to "take care of ourselves" by focusing on God. Spend the next forty days spending time with God. Make God a priority in your life.
St. Margaret Church meets each and every Sunday morning at 9:30 AM. Come hear the Word of God preached from the King James Version and the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Join us as we receive the Precious Body and Blood of Our Blessed Saviour at Communion time. We worship at the beautiful chapel at Marquette Manor, which is located at 8140 N. Township Line Road on the Northwest side of Indianapolis.
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