On the upside it made my first day of fasting a lot easier.
Anyway, I crawled onto one of my favorite spots, our "fainting couch", did my best death rattle and tried to ignore the world.
In the interim, Amy got out the camera (see above) and also posted a rather lengthy post to my blog (ahem) detailing our Lenten plans, her 30 or 40 Lenten goals, and all sorts of other stuff, which we later deleted for a variety of reasons but primarily because she's not used to editing in Blogger (which really is crappy by the way and getting more so) and was highly frustrated with its fluky behavior.
I didn't want the picture to go to waste though...it's a great fainting couch.
In any case, I rallied a bit and mustered enough courage to go walking as I have vowed to do and now am rushing to try to get my thoughts together before we (maybe only me, Amy is still feeling poorly) go to our Ash Wednesday service.
Although it's becoming more common, many Baptists don't observe Ash Wednesday...I'm glad we do.
As I walked today I thought often of taking shortcuts, cutting my once normal route down a bit since I'm not in the shape I was in 5 or 6 months ago...and then I saw the first coin. Coins and walking are a long story...I'll be late for church if I go into it now, but take it from me it meant something to me.
Still I was tempted.
It's 85 degrees, I'm out of shape, feeling puny, fasting, can I whine a little more for you?
I was tempted a lot.
Each time I considered cutting my walk short...I found another coin.
Six coins in all...a dime and five pennies. Hey, I admitted I was tempted.
And that's when it dawned on me.
This is a season of penitence...there are no shortcuts.
...and He was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended Him. - Mark 1:13
