Ash Wednesday

So yesterday we got the load on, debauched ourselves, and carried on in all manners of evil on Fat Tuesday.  Well not exactly, but somebody must have had a good worldly time. But now it's Ash Wednesday which for the foot soldier catholic is the " the spring of change" more commonly known as Lent. One huge thing that takes place is participating members give up something, as it is a time of sacrifice. Some give up coffee, so that the rest of us can put up with their grumpiness, or bad moods from lack of their caffeine fix. Others give up chocolate, or Facebook, or a list of other inconveniences. Then when Easter rolls around they go back to sipping coffee, dumping down chocolate, and doing everything again they gave up. What all of this back and forth, off and on accomplishes for the spiritual closeness to God is a real mystery. It would seem that if we were to give up something that makes a difference, it would be something the Maker would like. Does he really give a hoot about coffee, chocolate, social media, etc or would it be better to give something life changing.? Maybe something we would actually do that improves our relationship with The Shepherd. When Moses was around leading the Israelites  God seemed to get quite angry with all the sinning they did. Some scriptures talks of large quantities of folks getting smoot, definitely reducing the surplus population.  So maybe if we want to improve a spiritual life we would give up sin. Stop looking at life from the wrong end of the telescope. Get a hair cut and shave. Get a ticket on the train back to reality. At the end of the day no more sinning might mean being happier, and a lot more charitable to people we don't like.