Pancakes and Ashes

Scripture 

 “But be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectation get dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for it’s going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don’t fall asleep at the wheel. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that’s coming and end up on your feet before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36 MSG) 

Pancakes and Ashes

Depending on your cooking skills you can combine Pancake Tuesday with Ash Wednesday in one burnt pancake this week. Blow out and penitence, indulgence and self-denial, champagne, and a bitter cup – lots of polarities in our living on any given day. Some find Lent a helpful discipline for refocussing our inner lives and keeping our compass direction pointed to True North.  

Others of us don’t have that tradition in our spiritual practices but we all share moments where we have decided to restrain our use of money, food, drink, anger – self-indulgence and commit to being more intentionally generous, limited, restrained, forgiving – to move to self-lessness in a conscious response to a nudge from the Gentle Spirit. 

Seasons of the church calendar, like seasons in our lives, are regular invitations to reflect on our sensitivity to God, our care for creation and our love and care for those around us. We know intuitively that to be at our best as humans we need times of reflection and self-awareness about our attitudes, practices, and behaviours. 

So whether or not we flip a pancake on Tuesday or have the sign of the cross smudged on our foreheads on Wednesday, this is as good a time as any to sit quietly and review our last day, week or month. Where have we noticed God? When have we been most grateful? What broken places need my attention? What does our friend Jesus have to say to us about it all? 

A Prayer for Today

Loving God, quiet me down to listen to my life and your presence in it.
Reflecting on the last day or week, where have I noticed you O God?
Where did I notice Your friendship in my life?
Have I noticed any acts of friendship given me?
Have I noticed times when I was truly a friend to another.
Have I noticed times when I was impatient, critical, or inattentive to the needs of another?
What have I noticed my friend Jesus saying to me about all this?