Lent day 1

 Can't believe its Lent already!  Only just finished writing the Advent blog !!

In all the years I've been doing this I have never felt less like writing a blog in my life.  I feel that I have nothing to say, I'm weary with life and struggling to stay on the right side of depressed since Christmas. I had thought about cheating this year and re-heating a selection of posts from previous years in the hope that nobody would notice 😊

But then last week I was in a prayer room and the whole thing was framed around the story of Daniel. And as I read some of the scriptures and reflections posted up around the room I thought that I should probably/possibly/maybe look into Daniel as a starting point for the Lent Blog.

And then..... yesterday I was in the car and the radio was on.  There was a guy talking about Canada and the environmental devastation which is being caused by bitumen mining there. Apparently vast huge swathes of virgin land is being bulldozed of trees and stripped of its valuable carbon-capturing grasses so that massive holes can be dug to extract the stuff we need for making roads. 




I was half listening until the narrator suddenly said that the bitumen mines in Canada could be compared with the mines of Nebudchanezzar in the times of Daniel. Apparently Babylon was a vast empire built entirely from the bitumen mined there. Parts of it are still there or have been uncovered, showing the bricks being cemented together with the tar-like substance which could be found underground throughout the entire region. Nebudchanezzar's mines according to the radio show, were every bit as vast and impressive as those found today in Canada.   To say I was surprised was an understatement.  And of course I took this as a confirmation that it is indeed supposed to be Daniel for the blog this year.     God truly does speak through all possible means 😊

Its many years since I read the whole of Daniel in one go. I have a feeling that it is a book which speaks to our times and that God will have stuff to show us.

If you are up for accompanying me you are more than welcome.  

Our church is doing a week of prayer and fasting this week.  I have a nasty feeling I might be doing 40 days of vegetables. Ho hum.

Happy Ash Wednesday.



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