Thought for the week (we 16th March 2014)

Well did you manage to resist too many pancakes last week? I must admit that I did overindulge a little but it was Shrove Tuesday after all!

Traditionally the day when all those rich and delicious foods lurking in the larder were used up before the fasting and religious obligations associated with Lent began. Ash Wednesday changes the mood completely – now we are in the forty days before Easter when reflection and self sacrifice is the name of the game and the tradition changes from one of excess to taking stock spiritually and resisting more than ever the temptations that life more often than not throws at us.

Temptation can, of course, take many forms from the frivolous to those influences that can have devastating effects on our lives. I remember in college struggling with those Greek exercises so much so that I was tempted to buy the ‘answer book’ which seemed to stare invitingly at me every time I went to the university bookshop.

Then there’s the popular culture of the day which says ‘If it feels good then just do it’.  That in itself can be a recipe for disaster and the slippery slope which ends nowhere.

Perhaps we can best use this season of Lent not so much as to give something up but to be assured and reminded that God never gives up on us. The best way may through may be to be tempted positively and to set our mind on helping others. To get along side someone we know who is going through a rough patch or to take time to support some worthy cause rather than satisfying our own self indulgence.

Jesus is our example – he came through those forty days of the extremes of the physical and emotional temptations knowing that even in those darkness hours he was not alone and neither are we.