Lent 2012

While I don't give up something during Lent, I do like to do something extra during this very important time of reflection and spiritual growth.

I have set some very specific goals to be accomplished (hopefully) by Easter, but I will only mention one of those goals here. I like to spend Lent focusing on a specific verse or passage from the bible. Here is what I have chosen for 2012:

From that place he went off to the district of Tyre. He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it, but he could not escape notice. Soon, a woman heard about him. She came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs." She replied and said to him, "Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps." Then he said to her, "For saying this, you may go. The demon has gone out of your daughter." When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed with the demon gone. ~ Mark 7:24-30

I am in awe of this woman's persistence and faith because she could have slunk off at such a rebuke. I want mostly to reflect on the attitudes of both the woman and Jesus. How can this apply to me? Do I give up my prayers too easily when I don't get a response fast enough or if the response is not what I want? Is God's "silence" or unwanted response because God has other plans or because my faith is not strong or what? This should make for an interesting reflection.

Happy Lent 2012!