January 8, 2011 · 4:11 pm

I Dislike (reacting to tragedy on FB)

News spread quickly on cable TV, but I wasn’t near a TV.  I was online, hooked up to facebook while I was supposed to be working on something else.  Then I read this

D.H. – “This is just sad” with a link to the headline “Congresswoman, 6 others killed by gunman”

M.C. – ” This is terrible!! As I look deeper into the story and some of things that have been done and said leading up to this……It was only a matter of time!!”

I read the story and find out some details.  Like a good FBer, I decide to share the headline, with this is my comment: “No need for political commentary now, as it is too early. This is just sad.”

The comments then started to flow as more headlines were posted.  At least four other friends posted similar headlines, and the cross-pollination of the comments became confusing.  I thought I would share some of the comments that were made within three hours of the first headline being posted:

  • I’m afraid that the rush to answer “why” might get ugly and political real fast. I hope people can take time to grieve and process emotions before name-calling, fighting, demonizing and retaliation begins (Me)
  • Unbelievable……really?? WHY??? This is my question…why???? Praying for all those killed and all those injured and the families who lost their loved ones……this is just so upsetting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (JC)
  • (My response to above)  I’m afraid that the rush to answer “why” might get ugly and political real fast. I hope people can take time to grieve and process emotions before name-calling, fighting, demonizing and retaliation begins
  • Words cannot express my sadness of there. May God be with Cogresswoman Giffords, her family and staff….as well as the people of Tucson. (DW)
  • May the presence of Peace flow into this tragedy and transform it. May the presence of Love be with the victims and their families. May we be led into a better future by the One who brings hope. (AS)
  • I sit in wonder and disillusion sometimes – crying out to God. Praying for the peace that Jesus taught and flows from the Holy Spirit to be present in our broken world. Gracious God please use me for your will, be with those affected by this tragic act of violence and those who caused it. (SM)
  •  For the most part, while vile and harsh, politics don’t typically end up in such violence as this. (SC)
  •  I pray that this tragedy brings NEW light and awareness to what is transpiring in our country……I’m not sure exactly what words to find here!!!! (JC)
  • Damn that situation in Arizona is all f***** up. My prayers r with her and her family. (JB)

And finally, my last status update for awhile:

“Robb McCoy wants to cry out to God. Why have you foresaken us? Then I realize, it wasn’t God that left. It was the other way around. I pray for peace to flow through this tragedy. I pray for reconciliation and grace to replace anger and despair. Holy Spirit, work in the lives of those that survive, and speak a new word of life in the face of death.”

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December 17, 2010 · 12:19 am

The Longest Night

On Christmas Eve churches everywhere will be filled with happy people.  The lights will be on, the poinsettias arranged, the sweaters will be bright, and the smiles will be wide.  People will gather in the pews and sing the traditional carols, hear the Christmas story, and light candles.  Millions on Christmas Eve night will rise and sing “Joy to the World.”

Many of those same people that will rise and sing on December 24 will go to bed on December 21 and face the longest night of the year in despair. There will be many that lie down wondering, “Where is the joy?”  For people that are hurting, struggling, or mourning, the longest night of the year is so very long.

The bills have not been paid, the credit debt is mounting, and work is hard to come by.  The night is so very long.

My mother died at this time of the year.  Christmas won’t be the same.  I miss her smile.  I miss her words of wisdom.  I miss her so much, and the night is so very long.

For the last 53 Christmases I have been with my husband.  He held me in his arms as we watched the children, then the grandhcildren, open their presents.  He made hot cocoa every Christmas morning.  I do not even know the recipe, and the night is so very long.

The onesies I got for Christmas last year are put in a box in the attic.  Never worn.  Never held.  I miss my child and I never held him in my arms, and the night is so very long.

The night can be so very long.  The night can be so very dark and cold.

Some say that everything happens for a reason.  God is in control, and has a plan.  But what kind of God could plan such things?  Is this the God that I am supposd to celebrate?  Is this the God that I am supposed to worship?  How can I sing “Joy to the World,” when there is none in my own heart?

Christmas does not mean everything is okay.  Christmas did not end the sadness, the pain or the despair.  For those that are hurting at Christmas, I hope you know that you are not alone.  I do not offer you simple platitudes.  I do not offer you easy answers.  All I can offer you is my love.

I don’t think that everything happens for a reason.  I think there are terrible things that happen everyday that God did not plan. I also think that God gives us the power and the grace to overcome even the worst that can happen.  God gives us the chance to heal and be healed; to feed and be fed; to love and be loved.

The longest night can be so very long.  Christmas does not end the night, but it gives us hope for the dawn.

Liturgy for a worship service “For those that mourn at Christmas”

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December 14, 2010 · 6:38 pm

The Best College Basketball Program Without a Championship

It really isn’t even much a debate.  I’ve decided what the best college basketball program is that never won a national championship. And the winner is…

Seriously, it’s not even really close.  In almost any way that you judge this, Illinois is the best overall basketball program to never win a national championship.  Not only do they have the best program, but might have had two of the best teams to not win chamionships.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this.  As a huge Illini fan, it’s not exactly something to be excited about.  The Illini are sort of the “Crash Davis” of college basketball.  Crash Davis, of course, is the fictional character in the movie “Bull Durham” that broke the record for most career home runs in the minor leagues.  On the one hand, it’s pretty cool to have hit more home runs than any one else.  On the other hand, he did it in the minors.  For Illinois, it is pretty cool to stack up the accolades, the Final Fours, the All-Americans, Big Ten Championships, and then realize that they were never the last team standing.  Ever.

Consider the following:

  • Illinois has 38 all-time NCAA tournament victories.  That is 18th all-time.  Every team in the top 20, other than the Illini, have a national championship.
  • Their 67 tournament games ranks 16th.  Again, all the teams in front of them have won a title.
  • 1,630 all-time victories is 13th all-time.  Penn, St. John’s, and Temple have more wins without a title.  Of those three, only St. John’s has a higher winning percentage.
  • 17 Big Ten Championships.  Purdue, Indiana and Ohio State have more.  Purdue has never won a national championship, and could be in this discussion, but their NCAA past isn’t strong enough.
  • 5 Final Four appearances.  That is tied for 14th all time.  Every team with more appearances has won a national championship.  The other teams with 5 Final Fours are Houston and Georgetown.  Georgetown won it in 1984.  Houston has never won a title.  But Houston had basically one great team in the early 80’s with Drexler and Olajuwon.  They went to three straight Final Fours from 1982-84, and all five were under the same coach.  Illinois’s Final Fours came in four different decades and were under three different coaches.  Plus, Houston hasn’t won an NCAA game since 1984.
  • 10 Sweet 16 appearances in four different decades – the 50s, 60s, 80s, and 2000s.
  • 6 consensu All-Americans
  • 1 title lost because of some of their best players, the original “Whiz Kids” enlisted to fight in World War II.
  • 47 Illini that played in the NBA, including guys with pretty good careers, like: Deron Williams, Kendal Gill, Nick Anderson, Nick Weatherspoon, Eddie Johnson, Johnny “Red” Kerr, and Hall of Famer Andy Phillip.
  • The website The Bleacher Report is the only other site I have seen that covered this topic.  They picked Memphis.  The author does not give a very good reason.  His reasoning: Memphis has three final fours and two national championship games, one dating back to 1973.  Nevermind the fact that one of those Final Fours has since been forfeited, but Illinois has more Final Fours, plus their three third place finishes date back to the post-war era.  We’re talking 60 years of being almost great.  Plus, he gives them extra credit for being in a non-power conference.  Not sure why that is a plus. I’ll take Illinois’s 17 Big Ten titles.
  • A year later the same website ranked the top 20 basketball programs of all time.  Guess who was the highest ranked program sans championship?  I’ll give you a clue, they wear orange and blue.  Illinois was ranked #17.  The only other team in the top twenty without a title was No. 20 Temple.
  • Sports Reference came out with a formula just a few weeks ago.  It is purely mathematical, using scores from all games.  Top Five: 1. Duke, 2. North Carolina, 3. Kansas, 4. Kentucky, 5. Illinois.  This is an objective figure.  No weight given to championships or NCAA tournaments or prestige.  It is purely about the scores of games, and Illinois came out 5th all-time.

I’m not sure what all of this proves.  That last figure actually depressed me a little.  What if those guys on the Whiz Kids stuck around and won a national championship and then enlisted?  What if Kentucky wasn’t allowed to play their regional finals at home in the 80s? What if Nick Anderson had boxed out and kept Michigan from putting back the game-winner in Seatle?  What if James Augustine hadn’t gotten into such ridiculous foul trouble?   How many championship banners could be hanging in the Assembly Hall?

There are some other good programs that have never won titles.  Memphis, Houston, Missouri, Purdue, Iowa, Temple, Kansas State could all make an argument.  None of them have the same resume – especially the prolonged “excellence.”  I guess I can take comfort in the fact that Phil Mickelson held the title, “Best Golfer without a Major” for years before finally breaking through with multiple championships.  Maybe the Illini can follow Lefty’s footsteps.  I fear, however, they’ll need a better plan against zone defenses and a stronger inside presence first.

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December 8, 2010 · 3:25 pm

The Great Disconnect, Part II

President Obama announced yesterday that he has struck a deal with Republicans.  On the surface, this sounds great.  I’m all for getting a little governing done – compromise; make deals; cross the aisle.  It sounds good.  But then I read a little bit more about what the general facts of this compromise, and I’m so let down.  Again.  To me, this compromise epitomizes what is wrong with our political system – no one is willing to do anything that might be unpopular.

I don’t know all the details of what is going on.  I am only a casual oberver of politics.  I’ve made it clear before that I voted for Obama, and would consider myself more of a Democrat than a Republican, but I’ve never been a strict party-line follower.  I’ve voted several times in important elections for third-party candidates just because I don’t think either party gets it.  And this compromise is a perfect example.

Everyone seems to recognize the problem with a huge national debt.  It reached an alarming level generations ago, and it has only gotten worse (with a brief respit in the 90s when the federal government actually had a budget surplus).  Today, the national debt is beyond what a person can even fathom.

To paint with an extremely wide brush, I can sum things up by saying that Republicans want to lower taxes and lower spending to get the budget under control.  This would allow the free market and capitalism to “do its thing,” so that people can work and buy and own and sell without impediment.  Without government interference, investors can do more investing, which then creates jobs, which creates income for all people – including the working poor.  In short, lower taxes and lower spending benefits all and balances the budget.

On the other hand, Democrats are generally okay with higher taxes and more government programs to create a safety net for people.  They believe that the free market, left unimpeded, simply creates a wider disparity between rich and poor.  They are in favor of a progressive tax, meaning that higher incomes are taxed at higher rates because people with higher incomes have presumably reaped the benefits of society, and should therefore pay for it. In short, higher taxes and social programs benefit all and balances the budget.

I do not believe that either stance is inherently more moral, or even more correct.  I think there are problems with both.  I think there is room for both as well.  I think the values of either side have merit, and either side expressed without checks would be dangerous.  The problem is, in our political system, neither side has the courage to do the unpopular part of their system.

In other words, Democrats want to spend on important programs, but they do not have the courage to push for higher taxes.  Republicans want to lower taxes, but do not have the courage to actually cut any programs.  The recent compromise was a perfect example of this.

The Democratic President wanted to raise taxes and extend unemployment benefits.  The Republicans in Congress wanted to keep taxes at the lower level, and end unemployment benefits.  This is perfectly in line with the basic values of each party.  But when they came to a compromise, they picked the two popular, more expensive, and thus defecit-inducing solutions.  The compromise was to extend the unemployment benefits, which will raise government spending; and keep taxes lower, which will keep revenue lower.   So what do we get: More spending and less revenue.  In other words: defecit.

Instead of two parties that hold onto their values, and come to tough compromises, we have two parties that are concerned only with holding onto their jobs.  The Democrats keep spending on programs, but don’t have the will to actually raise taxes to pay for them.  The Republicans keep lowering taxes, but don’t have the will to actually cut programs.  I realize that this is an oversimplification, but the end result is clear.  What we have is a great disconnect – a cycle of creating programs we don’t have money for and cutting taxes because its popular.

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October 15, 2010 · 12:53 pm

Justice tastes good

Halloween is supposed to be scary.  Chocolate isn’t.

This Halloween you may be giving away a lot of chocolate to boys and girls dressed up as princesses, vampires, monsters, fairies, and superheroes.  It is one of the most fun nights of the year for kids, and this year it falls on a Sunday.  In my town, there is a big bonfire in the city park where the VFW has a hot dog roast and a costume contest.  It is one of those classic nights that makes living in a small town so much fun.  There will be 70-100 kids and their parents.  I’m pretty sure that not one of them will have spent the day working in hot tropical fields, wielding machetes and being exposed to harmful pesticides.  I think it’s a safe bet that none of the children getting their chocolate treats were sold into work camps by their parents, desperate to provide for siblings that are starving.

Unfortunately, such an existance is common place in West Africa, where the majority of the world’s exported cocoa beans are grown.  Equal Exchange is one group that is making a difference in the world by fighting poverty at its root.  By bringing the products of small farms to consumers in the United States, Equal Exchange has been able to empower people to maintain economic stability.  Their Interfaith Store  is a way for churches and individuals to buy products that they can trust – and feel good about.

While big corporations like Hershery continue to “lag behind their competitors” in making improvements in the labor practices of cocoa farms, Equal Exchange provides an alternative for those that want to make sure that the chocolate they give to smiling faces on Halloween was not made by children across the ocean.

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October 11, 2010 · 4:10 pm

Coming out

I wrote this many years ago, when I was the pastor of a small church in Central Illinois. I am no longer there, but my sentiments have not changed since writing this.

 

What if I were gay?  What if I was a teenage boy living in a small town in Central Illinois, and I was starting to come to the realization that I might be homosexual?  I started thinking about that today because October 11 is National Coming Out Day.  Not sure who deemed it as such, and I probably would have had no idea about this day if it were not for facebook.  In light of the recent suicides of four teenagers that were bullied, embarassed, and harassed for being gay, the organizers of National Coming Out Day have encouraged others to “come out” instead.  They have asked the following:

 We would like everyone, whether you are gay, straight, bi, trans, queer, curious, confused, or anything else, to come out as an ally. If you have a gay friend or family member, if you do not but would not mind if you did. If you believe that everyone should have the right to feel safe, loved, and respected no matter who they love, on October 11th we ask you to change your status to “[insert name here] IS AN ALLY”.

This morning I was pondering making that change to my status, and I felt reluctant.  I felt nervous about how others would react.  I wondered if it would cause controversy in my church, or if it would anger someone I didn’t want to anger.  I wondered if making such a post would somehow negatively affect my ministry.  All selfish considerations, yet responsible things to ponder nonetheless.  In the end, I made the change.  Why?

Because I thought to myself – “If it is this hard to post on facebook that I am an ally, a friend, a loving, safe outlet, how hard would it be to actually come out to people?”  I thought of those four young people that committed suicide in the last few weeks.  I thought of the thousands of others that have already taken their own life, or are considering it right now.  I tried to feel for a moment what they might be feeling every second of their life.  I tried to feel their despair, their fear.

What if I were a gay teenager living in fear?  What if I had heard someone shout “God hates fags!”  What if I had heard my friends joke about “that queer” or call each other “gay” as if being gay was the last thing anyone would want to be.  What if I feared that my church-going parents would try to send me to some camp because I was broken?  What if I didn’t know what the word abomination meant, but I knew it wasn’t good? What if I thought my pastor was going to tell me I was going to hell because of the way God created me?  What would I do?  Where would I turn?

I thought for a moment about those questions, and I wondered.  What if I were a gay teenager living in a small town and I read my pastor’s facebook status, and it said that my pastor is “an ally.”  What if I knew that there was someone that I could talk to?  What if I knew that even though there are a few that are convinced that “God hates fags,” there are more that think “God is love.”  There are some that think that I am created in God’s image, and that I’m good.  How would that change how I feel?

So I decided to come out.  This isn’t about politics.  This isn’t about church dogma.  This is about love.  This is about offering mercy, kindness and grace.

If you are reading this, and you are gay, straight, or confused, know this: I am a friend. I do not want to change who you are or who you love. I do not believe that loving another person is ever a sin. I believe that we are all in need of transformation, that we all fall short of the perfect love that God calls us to. I believe God is love, and all love is of God. I love because God first loved me, and God loves you too.

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August 11, 2010 · 12:32 pm

The Playoffs

The playoffs start on August 14.

The playoffs of the Great Midwest Football League start this Saturday.  The Dawgs travel to St. Louis to take on the Midwest Chargers.

I’m not making the trip.  It hurts, but I think that my season is over.  It has been a wild ride, and I am so glad I did it.  I met a lot of great guys that accepted me onto their team.  I worked my tail off , and played some pretty good football.

I am proud of our team.  We have been through a lot of turmoil this year, yet when the chips were down we came together.  We’re riding a three game winning streak into the playoffs, and I’m not betting against my Dawgs the rest of the season.

Back in January, we started talking about rings.  Well, we had some ups and downs, but we stuck together.  We’re still a long way from a championship, but we’re in it.  We have a chance, and when we were sitting on our home field after a second tough loss and a 3-4 record, we didn’t even think we had that.

I’m proud of my team.  I wish I could be with them now that we’re in the playoffs, but my family comes first.  Hopefully they all know I’m pulling for them.  I don’t know if I will be able to make a trip during the playoffs, but I will be there on Sept. 11, when they come back to Chenoa to win it all.

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July 17, 2010 · 12:20 pm

Why I love football

People have a lot of bad ideas about what it means to be a man in this world.  We have a lot of ill-conceived notions of manliness that are wrapped up in self-aggrandizing notions of honor and toughness.  Little of what our culture tells us about being a man has any worth at all.

Being a man is not about who you can beat up.  It is not about how many women you can score.  It is not about how much alcohol you can handle.  Being a man is not about how much money you make, or how many toys you can buy.  It is not about the car you drive, the TV you watch, or the phone you carry.

Being a man (or woman, for that matter) is about a lot of things, but to me it is mostly about this: “How do you respond to adversity?”

When things aren’t going well, how do you respond?  We all experience adversity.  My adversity might not be on the same scale as others, but we all experience tough times.  We all have lonely nights when the dawn seems so very distant.  We all have relationships that need to be mended, and work that has been left undone.

The story of the Bible is full of people facing adversity.  It starts with two people left with a tough choice – follow God’s will, or do what we want and eat that fruit?  It tells the story of a family facing doom at every turn and at every generation.  It tells of a people under persecution and slavery.  It tells of a kingdom under attack, and kings under pressure.  It tells us of God’s Son, arrested, mocked, betrayed and crucified.

At every turn, the Bible is a story of people facing adversity.  How is it handled?  How do people respond?  Some fail.  Some eat the fruit.  Some pass their wife off as their sister so as not to endanger themselves.  Some worship idols.  Some run off, but get chased down by fish.  Some  take the easy way out.

Others find victory.  Some wrestle with the angel, and come out with a limp, but come out nonetheless.  Some wander in the desert, but persist and reach the Promised Land.  Some stand up to the giant, with nothing but God on their side and a sling in their hand.  Some preach the truth even when it is not popular.

And one found the final victory.  One found the lost, set the captive free and gave sight to the blind.  One healed the sick and fed the hungry.  One regarded honor as foolishness, and pride as folly.  One had the love in his heart to lay down his life for us all.  One cast aside the power of God to take his place on a cross.  And one rose again.

Being a man is about a lot of things, but God has taught me that it is really about one thing: responding to adversity.

And that is why I love football.  It is a game.  It is a foolish, violent game.  Yet it is a test.  Every time I put on the helmet, I know I will face adversity.  Sometimes that adversity comes in the form of a 300 pound lineman staring me in the face, itching to cast me aside and crush my teammate.

Sometimes the adversity is exhaustion.  Sometimes it is heat.  Sometimes it is a sore ankle.  Sometimes it is a lopsided score.  Sometimes it is in-team disputes.  But it is always adversity.  It is always a physical, mental and emotional struggle.  And everytime I get to answer  the ultimate question: “How will I respond to adversity?”

I don’t win every contest.  I don’t make every block.  I don’t always like the answer I get to my question, but I keep trying.  I pick myself up, look adversity square in the eye, and ask myself again, “How am I going to respond?”

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July 5, 2010 · 3:20 pm

Pastor Dawg: My prayer

The Twin City Dawgs walk by Chenoa United Methodist Church during the Chenoa Fourth of July parade

We’re halfway through the season, and I thought I’d take some time to reflect on my adventure as a semi-professional football player.  It has been frustrating, exhilirating, sobering, and rewarding.  So far I’ve played in three games (one was an exhibition).  In two of them I was the starting right tackle.  Our team record is 3-2.  We started 1-2.  We have five games left, and still have a shot at the playoffs if we keep winning.

I’ve been frustrated by my body and my schedule.  I’ve missed three games.  I missed one for a wedding I officiated.  I missed another on the weekend I was ordained (Yes, it’s officially Rev. Dawg now).  I missed a third because of an injury.  The whole season I’ve gone from one annoying ailment to another.  Right now  I feel relatively good, and I’m looking forward to five straight games without a bye starting on July 10.

I want to share a little about what goes on in my mind on a Saturday as a game approaches.

One of my favorite parts of the day is arriving at the field.  There are guys getting ready around the team bus.  I am greeted with hand shakes, fives, fist-bumps, and nods.  I am with my teammates, getting ready for a game, and I feel good.  There is a special relationship between teammates before a football game.  I think this feeling, above all else, is what I was wanting to find again when I started on this preposterous adventure.  I take my time as I prepare my pads – putting them in the right place, adjusting straps, and taping parts.  Eventually I walk down to our bench.

I walk out onto the field.  I feel the sun on my face.  I look at the field, the clean white stripes.  I look out at the sea of green corn fields.  I look up at the watertower.  I look over at our opponents getting ready in much the same way we are.  I find a place to sit, a little seperate from the rest of the team.  I pray, usually something like this:

“Thank you God for all that you have given me. Thank you for my wife and daughter.  Thank you for the incredible blessings in my life.  Thank you for my church and my home, and for the chance to serve you.  Thank you for the ability to play this game.  Thank you for my teammates, for the relationships that I have built.  Thank you for allowing me to pray and to play with them.

“I know God, that it is a violent game.  I know Jesus said that the meek that will inherit the earth, and that meekness is seldom valued on a football field.  Yet meekness is about putting the glory of others in front of my own.  That is, after all, the job of an offensive lineman, right? And so I feel in my heart that you have sent me to this field.  I believe you have called me to play for your glory.

“I ask that you bless this field.  Send your Holy Spirit to guide me, my teammates and my opponents.  Let us play this remarkable game with dignity and respect.  Keep us free from injury, and allow us to go home from this place with heads held high.

“Again, I thank you God for this chance.  There is no way I could be here without you.  Use me today, as you do everyday, for your will.  Let me be your instrument of grace so that someone may know the love of Jesus Christ, even on a football field.

“I thank you above all for your Son Jesus Christ.  I thank you, the source of life, life abundant, and life everlasting.  I pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.”

After I pray, we usually stretch as a team and do some warmups.  One of the first things I do is find my wife and daughter.  I almost always tear up  when I see them – its a wave of emotions I cannot really describe.

I try to take it all in as much as I can.  I savor every moment.  I enjoy the sweat dripping off my brow.  I enjoy taping my hands to get ready for battle. I enjoy looking into the eyes of my teammates knowing that we are in this together. I enjoy looking out at the crowd that is gathered, knowing they have come to watch us play our game.  I enjoy hearing guys whoop and holler.  I am usually quiet, yet inside my stomach is turning, my blood is pumping.  I am simmering, ready to boil over.

It is time for football.  It is the greatest game I have ever played, and I know that there are thousands of men wishing they could be doing what I am about to do.  I thank God again for the chance to be doing something I love.  I am ready.  Kick-off.

If you want to read about the earlier parts of my journey, you can read my previous posts called “Putting on the pads,” “Pastor Dawg,” and “Glory Days.” You follow the Twin City Dawgs by CLICKING HERE.

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July 1, 2010 · 12:33 pm

First Thursdays

For most people, the act of fasting is associated with one thing: giving up something for Lent.  Fasting is an altogether under appreciated spiritual discipline.  For the interest of full disclosure, I should add that I am guilty of neglecting fasting.  When I first became a pastor, one of the first series of sermons I did was on John Wesley’s means of grace.

I preached about prayer, Communion, worship, Bible study, conferencing and service. You can still read these sermons here.  As I put together my first sermon series, I left out fasting.  “That’s too much,” I thought to myself.  “No one wants to hear about fasting, especially not from the new guy.”

Well, I’m not the new guy anymore, so a few weeks ago I preached about fasting.  I have come realize what a disservice I did to people when I left out this important, yet unpopular, spiritual discipline.  I have since realized how incredibly important fasting really is.

In our world of instant gratification, consumer relations, and on-demand service, fasting is like an oasis in the midst of a desert of indulgence.  Fasting is so much more than “giving something up at Lent.”  While giving something up is an important part of fasting, it has much more to do with opening yourself up then giving something up.

Fasting is the intentional act of denying yourself.  It is a chance to cut off an earthly desire – not as some sort of co-sacrifice with Christ, but as a way to block out the noise of the world.  By shutting out the noise of self demanding gratification right now, a person can more easily be open to hearing God’s voice.

Fasting is a forgotten spiritual discipline, but it is one we are slowly rediscovering.  United Methodists across Illinois (south of I-80) are engaged today in prayer and fasting.  The Conference has asked people to use the first Thursday of each month as a day of prayer and fasting.

Fasting is a tough sell for people.  It is unpopular.  And that is why it is so important.  In a culture that is addicted to self, the denial of self might be the most therapeutic and counter-cultural action we can take today.

Today is the first Thursday.  I had a bagel for breakfast.  I will not eat again until about 3 p.m. (I would go later, but I have football practice, and don’t want to go hungry or full).  I am hoping to set aside some time during the day to pray for the church.  I will pray for a Pentecost revival to sweep through my church, all churches in our conference, and through all churches that are preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I invite you to do the same.  Deny yourself.  Open up to God.  Allow the Holy Spirit to work.  Hold on tight.

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