How's Your "Giving Up?"

1 Corinthians 10:1 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play." 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents. 10 And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. 13 No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. (New Revised Standard Version)

"Is it still Lent, Emmie?" asked the granddaughter of my administrative assistant. "Yes," was the reply. "Oh good, because I gave up broccoli, and I don't like broccoli." What followed was a lesson on Lent and how when we fast we should give up something we like not something we don't like. Our Lenten journey should be like the formative one taken by the people of God as they made their forty year trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. It took forty years to mold them into a new people and today's text is a reminder that they, like us, didn't always want to be a part of something that might mean change. And forty years in a physically and spiritually challenging mode made their lives difficult. Paul sees the blessings; walking with Moses in the cloud and passing through the Red Sea was seen as a baptism. The food provided by God was to eat "the same spiritual food," and to drink "the same spiritual water." And the "rock" in the Exodus story, Paul sees as Jesus, Who was present even then in a spiritual sense. Yet, even with this baptism and communion of sorts, it did no permanent good in their relationship with God. Some even wandered farther away from God and the story records that 23,000 died in a single day because of their disobedience. Paul then turned to the spiritual temptations of the Corinthians' day and warns against wandering away from God.

How's your "giving up?" Is it serving the purpose for which you gave it up? Are you deepening your walk with God? Or have you found that your mind and body is taking you away from God? Any attempt to better or strengthen our walk with God will meet with the resistance and temptation from the Tempter to deviate us off-course. Lent seeks to provide the opposite. Paul writes, "if you think you are standing" meaning being strong during this time, "watch out that you do not fall." We all go through the same temptations and trials. Rely on God and God will provide exactly what we need during this time. Ours is to endure faithful to the end.

PRAYER: Lord, make me stronger. Speak to my weaknesses and made me stronger. Speak to my strengths and do not let me be comfortable. I see the path and I hold Your hand; let me not deviate from it. This I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!

Eradio Valverde