WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.120 --> 00:00:04.880 This is Compass finding spirituality in the everyday. I'm 2 00:00:04.880 --> 00:00:08.639 Ryan Dunn. Here's a fun fact. Episodes about the 3 00:00:08.639 --> 00:00:12.160 Christian season of Lent are consistently among 4 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:14.884 our most listened to episodes. 5 00:00:15.825 --> 00:00:19.585 I I don't get it either. I guess people are just hungering for 6 00:00:19.585 --> 00:00:23.185 something spiritual in this season, you know, while they 7 00:00:23.185 --> 00:00:26.724 hunger for other things because they're they're fasting, you see. 8 00:00:27.265 --> 00:00:31.060 Anyways, since you you and your friends seem to hunger for more Lent, 9 00:00:31.119 --> 00:00:34.559 this episode delivers some of 10 00:00:34.559 --> 00:00:38.180 that. Unfortunately, some personal circumstances 11 00:00:38.400 --> 00:00:42.239 have kept me from doing a ton of research myself. My family is 12 00:00:42.239 --> 00:00:45.555 mourning the loss of my father after a prolonged 13 00:00:45.615 --> 00:00:49.215 illness while I prepare this episode. So I'm gonna 14 00:00:49.215 --> 00:00:52.975 lean on to the words of my friend, Reverend Joseph Yoo, for 15 00:00:52.975 --> 00:00:56.335 this particular episode. Joseph has been a guest on Compass 16 00:00:56.335 --> 00:00:59.969 previously, and he wrote dozens of articles for our old Rethink 17 00:00:59.969 --> 00:01:03.750 Church website. One article addressed a few questions 18 00:01:03.890 --> 00:01:07.729 about Lent. Specifically, why give up things for Lent? Or, 19 00:01:07.729 --> 00:01:11.415 you know, why do we fast for Lent? And what makes a 20 00:01:11.495 --> 00:01:15.175 a good Lenten practice? So we're diving into that. It's 21 00:01:15.175 --> 00:01:18.795 an audio essay for Lent by Joseph Yoo here 22 00:01:18.935 --> 00:01:21.435 on this episode of the Compass Podcast. 23 00:01:24.775 --> 00:01:28.500 I'm giving up being nice to my siblings for Lent, a youth student declared 24 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:32.320 emphatically. Well, if she can give up being nice, I'm 25 00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:36.100 going to give up doing homework, another chimed in. Oh, 26 00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:40.400 I'm gonna tell my parents that I'm giving up chores for Lent because the church 27 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:44.185 said it's a good thing to do. And that's when I 28 00:01:44.185 --> 00:01:47.945 knew that I had incredibly messed up. For years, 29 00:01:47.945 --> 00:01:51.305 we talked about giving things up for the Lenten season, but I 30 00:01:51.305 --> 00:01:55.145 realized I never really talked about the why of the 31 00:01:55.145 --> 00:01:58.700 seasonal fasting. At best, it was treated like a short 32 00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:02.299 diet plan. No chocolate, or no soda, or no 33 00:02:02.299 --> 00:02:06.060 coffee. And at worst, and this moment with my youth kids was 34 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:09.900 as bad as it could get, fasting became a scapegoat to 35 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:13.595 not do things you should be doing. One of the reasons why 36 00:02:13.595 --> 00:02:17.215 we give things up for Lent is to sit with our hunger. 37 00:02:17.834 --> 00:02:21.275 For the majority of us reading this, we often don't allow 38 00:02:21.275 --> 00:02:24.895 ourselves to sit with our hunger. We don't need to. 39 00:02:25.040 --> 00:02:28.660 In fact, we complain when our hunger isn't satiated in a timely manner. 40 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:32.740 Everything is seemingly readily and quickly accessible, 41 00:02:33.360 --> 00:02:36.980 and the hunger I talk about goes beyond just food. 42 00:02:37.485 --> 00:02:41.165 We get annoyed when there is a slight lag in the videos we're watching on 43 00:02:41.165 --> 00:02:44.845 our phone. Amazon's Prime two day delivery sometimes doesn't 44 00:02:44.845 --> 00:02:48.525 seem quick enough. We get a little agitated when we 45 00:02:48.525 --> 00:02:52.045 mobile order our Starbucks while five minutes out and it's still not 46 00:02:52.045 --> 00:02:55.770 ready when we arrive to pick it up. So the Lent season offers 47 00:02:55.830 --> 00:02:58.650 us an opportunity to sit with our hungers. 48 00:02:59.510 --> 00:03:03.130 We give something up to learn what the hunger reveals 49 00:03:03.270 --> 00:03:06.630 about us. What is the hunger beneath the 50 00:03:06.630 --> 00:03:10.235 hunger? And who or what or where is 51 00:03:10.235 --> 00:03:13.454 God when I am hungry for something I desire? 52 00:03:13.915 --> 00:03:17.215 Is it God the creator that will sate this hunger? 53 00:03:17.995 --> 00:03:21.614 Or is it money, fame and popularity, relationships? 54 00:03:23.129 --> 00:03:26.650 What is your hunger teaching you about yourself and your dependence on 55 00:03:26.650 --> 00:03:30.409 God? And here are some Lenten practices I have engaged 56 00:03:30.409 --> 00:03:33.930 in throughout my life that help reveal things about myself and 57 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:37.724 God. Silence. This Lent, I set aside 58 00:03:37.784 --> 00:03:41.625 fifteen minutes of being in silence daily. It's 59 00:03:41.625 --> 00:03:45.305 really easy for me to be silent, a side effect of 60 00:03:45.305 --> 00:03:49.060 being an introvert. However, not having any 61 00:03:49.060 --> 00:03:52.900 intentional noise around me has been a lot more difficult than 62 00:03:52.900 --> 00:03:56.740 I anticipated. I often would spend the first fifteen minutes of a 63 00:03:56.740 --> 00:04:00.585 walk without music in my ears and without talking. After a 64 00:04:00.585 --> 00:04:04.125 few minutes, I felt the urge to talk to myself out loud 65 00:04:04.185 --> 00:04:07.785 just to add some other noise around me. Why is it 66 00:04:07.785 --> 00:04:11.225 so difficult to be in silence? So far, the 67 00:04:11.225 --> 00:04:14.985 biggest thing this short period of intentional silence has taught me is to 68 00:04:14.985 --> 00:04:18.490 be aware of God's presence. Sometimes I 69 00:04:18.490 --> 00:04:22.170 focus on so much of my output that I may 70 00:04:22.170 --> 00:04:26.010 miss the input from God. Being still and silent helps me 71 00:04:26.010 --> 00:04:29.790 to edge closer to hear the still small voice of God. 72 00:04:30.905 --> 00:04:34.505 Fasting. Sometimes I have fasted for meals, other 73 00:04:34.505 --> 00:04:37.865 times certain medias. There are times where I have a stain from 74 00:04:37.865 --> 00:04:41.705 particular foods, like coffee. This was the easiest to discern 75 00:04:41.705 --> 00:04:45.320 what the fast was teaching me. Christians don't live on bread 76 00:04:45.380 --> 00:04:49.080 alone. Fill in whatever your context is for bread. 77 00:04:49.300 --> 00:04:53.000 During the season I gave up coffee and that caffeine headache 78 00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:56.900 came roaring in, it really made me question if I was more 79 00:04:56.900 --> 00:05:00.435 dependent on coffee or on prayer. Why 80 00:05:00.435 --> 00:05:04.035 can't it be both? The physical hunger pangs made it 81 00:05:04.035 --> 00:05:07.495 easier to be reminded that ultimately my dependence 82 00:05:07.715 --> 00:05:11.414 is in God, that I'm made whole only in 83 00:05:11.715 --> 00:05:15.520 and through God. Prayer. Most Lenten 84 00:05:15.520 --> 00:05:19.360 seasons I like adding a discipline rather than taking something 85 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:23.200 away from my life or plate. Some seasons I add 86 00:05:23.200 --> 00:05:26.880 intentional times of prayer. It's similar to taking time for silence, 87 00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:30.344 but noise is involved. Instead of scrolling mindlessly 88 00:05:30.564 --> 00:05:34.324 through social media or watching something on TV like I normally would do 89 00:05:34.324 --> 00:05:38.004 in that time and space, I turned it towards prayer. This 90 00:05:38.004 --> 00:05:41.625 intentional time of prayer reminded me that I don't need to be 91 00:05:42.200 --> 00:05:45.800 entertained every waking moment of my life. It helped 92 00:05:45.800 --> 00:05:49.260 me recenter myself and be reminded of what actually 93 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:53.340 are the priorities of my life. But most importantly, 94 00:05:53.880 --> 00:05:57.715 it taught me that I am not God. God 95 00:05:57.775 --> 00:06:01.555 is God. Intentional and Random Acts of Kindness. 96 00:06:02.175 --> 00:06:05.694 Last year, I set out to bless someone, anyone, every 97 00:06:05.694 --> 00:06:09.455 day. Michael Frost in Surprise the World described blessing 98 00:06:09.455 --> 00:06:12.840 someone as adding strength to one's arm. This means leaving 99 00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:16.600 someone slightly better than when we first encountered them, helping 100 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:20.440 them to breathe just a little bit better. So 101 00:06:20.440 --> 00:06:24.165 I decided to be a small blessing in people's day. Take a friend out 102 00:06:24.165 --> 00:06:28.005 to lunch, pay for a stranger's coffee, put my neighbor's trash bins back 103 00:06:28.005 --> 00:06:31.685 after the trash was collected, send encouraging and affirming letters, 104 00:06:31.685 --> 00:06:35.365 anything and everything. It was a practice of inviting Mother 105 00:06:35.365 --> 00:06:38.665 Teresa's quote, do small things with great 106 00:06:38.725 --> 00:06:42.360 love. I mean, what is one of the surest 107 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:46.039 ways to show my love for God? To love my 108 00:06:46.039 --> 00:06:49.479 neighbor. The biggest takeaway from that season was I 109 00:06:49.479 --> 00:06:52.855 can always afford to be generous. 110 00:06:53.235 --> 00:06:56.755 So what are some of the revelations you are discovering in your Lenten 111 00:06:56.755 --> 00:07:00.355 disciplines this year? It's 112 00:07:00.355 --> 00:07:04.035 Ryan again. We'll be back to our normal schedule in two 113 00:07:04.035 --> 00:07:07.750 weeks time. In the meantime, you can feast upon more episodes 114 00:07:07.750 --> 00:07:10.950 of compass and get show notes and all that at 115 00:07:10.950 --> 00:07:14.710 umc.org/compass. Thanks for taking this 116 00:07:14.710 --> 00:07:18.230 break with me. I appreciate it. And I'm looking forward to getting back with you 117 00:07:18.230 --> 00:07:19.450 soon. Peace.