Every Sunday we have a predictable pattern that we call response time. This time always seems to come and go so quickly, but those few minutes I spend reflecting and praying tend to yield a Kairos: an opportunity to be transformed by hearing God's voice and doing what He says. God will often times get my attention during the sermon, and then I try to really listen and discern what He might be saying.

As I listened to Kyle preach through his sermon, I was thinking to myself: "Jesus, you don't have anything to say?" I mean, typically, God almost always grabs my attention in a sermon, and I get eager about what He is trying to say! This time, however, I thought that maybe Jesus didn't have too much to say to me.

Joel 2:12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” 13 So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness;

In the sermon this Sunday, Stephanie spoke on confession and repentance. Focusing on the second chapter of the book by the prophet Joel, she used a passage often used for Ash Wednesday services. Ash Wednesday begins the 40 day season of Lent, which is a season of repentance in preparation for Easter, so the overarching theme of the passage from Joel is repenting, turning our hearts and even our bodies to a merciful God with fasting, weeping & mourning.

As I roll out of bed in the morning, I pad into the kitchen and pour the hot water onto the coffee grounds that some blessed soul has prepared for me. The family is in a flurry all around me, scrambling eggs, buttering toast, starting schoolwork, telling jokes around the table, arguing over who will get the last drops of orange juice. I silently watch as the glorious black liquid drips into my cup. Hold it to my lips...and breathe in the sweet aroma. “Hey, thanks God.”

Fasting is mentioned 50 times in the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament it is used to show grief or to show humility. In the New Testament it is a means to grow closer to God. As much as I do not look forward to starting this practice of fasting, I do look forward to growing closer to God – to be more sensitive to what he is telling me. My fasting will look different because of medical reasons, yet I am sure there is a way to safely do it.

My husband loves to play video games. Well… he loves to customize characters, install mods (whatever those are), read about the game, and watch other people play it. He likes to fantasize about the best tech that would unlock the game’s full potential. All of this (for reasons I’ll never understand) is all very exciting, but there’s something I’ve noticed: only about a quarter of the time he spends “playing a video game” is actually spent playing the game.

It can be so easy to read about the miracles done by the early Church believers, as in Acts 9:32-43, and quickly pass it by as something just meant for them and not for us, as believers today. In my personal experience, Biblical miracles have been easily diminished to simply amazing stories of the great heroes of our faith. And while these miracle stories are definitely that, they are also meant for so much more to us as believers today!

My daughter Nadia and I were talking about the process we use for writing reflections for Regen. I shared with her that for the “Connect” response I always relate it to something from the Sunday service as a source of my inspiration. Kyle’s final remark and Stephanie’s questions for reflection this past Sunday morning have been circling around my mind and heart all afternoon. There is a part of me that does not want to let them rest or dive deeper into what that means for me.