We've reached the halfway point of Lent 2021 and in my own Linton tradition, I have finally come to the place of preparation to begin Lent.
Yesterday's rose-colored vestments marked the middle of our Lenten journey and after trying and trying and trying during Lent this year, I have finally made some headway in my spiritual journey and I almost wish that Lent was twice as long. I still have the endurance to build and the efforts to make in order to see the the fruits by the end.
Disclaimer: Lent is not a diet! And perhaps for the first time I am finally not treating it like a diet, though my spiritual woes tend to be in the food world.
I have an addictive personality, though I keep it pretty tame on the outside with as many efforts as I can. However, over the years I have been engaged in what I'll call a binge eating disorder and then binge learning and then a binge dieting. I finally come to conclusion that I should have been asking God for help this entire time instead of trying to do it all by myself. He has a vested interest in me succeeding over my food addictions as they are in obstacle for me to Him.
It is hard to find a Catholic book that addresses this and I think it's because Protestants cherry pick scripture verses to apply to their lives. Maybe that's not fair. But I want to make sure I maintain a Catholic perspective which includes the fact that Jesus himself gave himself as food for us. Therefore food is such a glorious gift from God.
I've been reading a couple of books that have been helping me and they're all written by Protestants, so I have to make sure I'm praying about the truth as I read them. I feel good about recommending Dr Michael Brown's Breaking the Stronghold of Food.
With the one exception of a time when his wife Nancy refers to Jesus' Last Supper and His final words of "it is finished," (oh how I wish I could send them a few Scott Hahn books), the rest is applicable to our lives as future saints. The major lesson that I've learned from it is that God is more powerful than any of my obsessive food thoughts and he wants me to be free of them.
