Spiritual "Blisters"

I was excited to find a blister last week on my toe! Excited? Yes! A blister to me meant a couple of things 1) I was keeping up my commitment to walk off 4000 calories the month of February and 2) It meant my whole body even my feet are getting stronger. Even a blister can be a good thing if it is treated correctly. What I have learned from training for long walks in the past is that a blister carefully cared for will toughen your feet for the next walk. Eventually when I walk for breast cancer in November (60 miles) my feet are going to be blistered up, healed up and ready to go. This leads me to the next question. Have you experienced any spiritual "blisters" lately?

Spiritual "blisters" come from repeating spiritual practices until a spiritual soft spot is revealed. The list of spiritual practices vary but John Wesley believed that these were the essential practices - prayer, receiving communion, reading and meditating on scripture, and fasting. These practices were meant to help us grow closer to God and prepare us to serve our neighbor. You see without growing closer to God first we run into the problem of going to "serve" our neighbor with our own heart. Only God knows how to love our neighbor best and it is through loving God we are able to love our neighbor.

So back to blisters...do you have any spiritual blisters? Me neither..ugh!

I am hoping to develop some during the season of Lent, a time where we have 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter preparing for the celebration of Christ return. This year I will be spending Lent doing the following weekly: Walking and praying for peace, reading scripture, serving & receiving communion and fasting one day per week. My "spiritual" blisters probably won't show up on my toe..but they will show up on my heart. Over the weeks ahead as I practice these over and over, my heart will be made more like God's. And my whole body will respond so that I can see, feel, smell and hear God's call on me to serve not through my heart but through the heart of Jesus Christ. Will you join me this Lent and develop some spiritual "blisters?"

Peace to you!