Patience and Hope: Our Journey to Easter

After over five decades on God's Earth, contemplating Lent can be an exercise in creativity.  What to give up this year?  Coffee, tortilla chips, wine, cheese .. done them all.  Or in reverse, what can I do more of this year?  Volunteer at the food bank, sing in the church choir, start resistance training at the gym ... check those off (with varying degrees of success!)

So, recently, I was pleasantly surprised to discover another perspective - a list of behavioral habits that could be subject to fasting.  But best of all, the list presented the opposite behavior as something to FEAST ON.    For those of us who prefer positive action rather than avoiding a negative, this idea struck me like a lightning bolt, and I feel compelled to share it, together with various photos from the last 12 months.  I hope you find something in it that can inspire you through the 40 days of our journey toward a blessed Easter!

Imagine ... Peace and Unity

By William Arthur Ward (American author, teacher and pastor, 1921 - 1994)

Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling in them.
Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of life.





Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.

Big Mountain Jesus

In 1949, the Big Mountain resort hosted the U.S. Ski Championships

and many of the competitors were WWII veterans from the Army's

10th Mountain Division.  They teamed up with the local Knights

of Columbus to commission the statue in memory of their

fallen comrades.

Fast from worry; feast on divine order.
Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.

Mid-term care packages for #1 Son and his girlfriend

Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.

Fast from hostility; feast on non-resistance.
Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.

Grand Cayman Sunset, March 2017

With my Mom at the 

Huckleberry Festival

Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.

Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
Fast from anger; feast on patience.

                                              (Columbian ground squirrel at Logan Pass
                                                in Glacier National Park; you'll hear my
                                                voice and that of my Mom)

Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.

Scott Kelly spent a year aboard the International Space

Station: "There is a lesson here ... about risk and

resilience, about endurance and trying again."

(Internet)

Streep and Hanks do it again in this

poignant story about women in

leadership roles and the importance

of the free press in our society

Fast from facts that depress; feast on verities that uplift.
Fast from discouragements; feast on hope.

Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.

Snow shoeing Montana style - with temps ranging from -3F to 8F - 

'cause that's just what Montanans do on Sunday afternoons!

Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds.
Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.

View of Glacier National Park from summit of Big Mountain

(During Lent, I am working on patience and hope, while embracing meals free of meat and fish.)

Linking to:

All Seasons


Mosaic Monday


Saturday's Critters

Skywatch Friday