{"id":804460,"date":"2020-02-21T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T17:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=379334"},"modified":"2020-02-21T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T17:30:00","slug":"walking-our-faith-free-yourself-to-be-closer-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/walking-our-faith-free-yourself-to-be-closer-to-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking Our Faith: Free yourself to be closer to God"},"content":{"rendered":"
Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson<\/strong>
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div> <\/figure>

Once a week, I take Buddy, my 150-pound Newfoundland, to the\ndog park in Breckenridge and let him run. He enjoys chasing other dogs who are\nchasing balls. He has such a look of joy to be free of his leash. It fills my\nheart.<\/p>

At 8 a.m. Wednesday, I\nwill serve as a Eucharistic minister for the Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Mary\u2019s. This\nMass signals the start of our 40 days of Lent, a sacred journey that leads us\nto the holiest date in our liturgical year, the Easter vigil.<\/p>

I\u2019ve had an unintentional\nrelationship with Lent. Until last year, giving up something, such as\nchocolate, felt like a sacrifice without meaning. <\/p>

We are told to \u201cdeny\nourselves and take up our cross and follow Jesus.\u201d But what does it mean to\nfast as Jesus fasted when he went into the desert for 40 days, the journey we\nare meant to replicate during Lent?<\/p>

What is the purpose of\nour sacrifice? I believe it is not an act of random denial but can be a bold\ndeclaration of freedom and trust in God.<\/p>

Last year, I gave up\nalcohol, specifically my nightly consumption of red wine, for Lent. To be\nhonest, I\u2019d made the same sacrifice in previous years and never lasted more\nthan a week.<\/p>

But last year was\ndifferent. I actually stuck with it for the entire 40 days. And it completely\nchanged my relationship with alcohol.<\/p>

I will give up red\nwine once again this year, but I\u2019m doing it with a new understanding of what it\nmeans to sacrifice for our 40-day journey into the wilderness with Christ.<\/p>

I believe when we make\nthis choice, being completely honest with ourselves and with God, the thing we\nchoose will be one that is an impediment in our relationship with God, our\nrelationship with our family or friends or with ourselves. <\/p>

God doesn\u2019t need our\nsacrifice, but he appreciates our willingness to set aside anything that blocks\nour view of him. To do so isn\u2019t always easy. It does require that we trust that\nGod\u2019s plan is better than our own, that God will strengthen us when we are\ntempted to succumb.<\/p>

The three temptations\noffered to Christ provide important examples of finding meaning in denial. Jesus\nspent 40 days in the desert fasting and praying, denying the self on one hand\nof food but on the other hand removing himself from society, focusing his mind\nand spirit on the three-year ministry he was about to begin.<\/p>

At the end of 40 days,\nJesus was offered three things that can inhibit a closer relationship with God.\nFirst he\u2019s offered food and drink, something intended to nourish our bodies,\nbut when consumed in excess, can do the opposite.<\/p>

Second Jesus was\noffered a promise of safety. How often do we allow worry about the future to\nenvelop our lives? How do we learn to plan for the future and trust God at the\nsame time? <\/p>

The third and final temptation\nwas the allure of power. How often do we allow our desire for popularity or the\nneed to fit in sway our choices and tempt us to keep up with the crowd?<\/p>

During our annual 40-day\njourney of Lent, we are asked to accompany Christ. Perhaps it would better if\nwe asked Jesus to accompany us as we enter our spiritual wilderness, to guide\nus through the shadows.<\/p>

God made each of us\nwith a unique purpose. But choices we\u2019ve made along the way might have clouded\nour understanding of our true identity. Lent is the perfect time to free\nourselves from whatever is obscuring our vision. <\/p>

Our experience of Lent\nwill be different from year to year. We are in a different place in our spiritual\njourney than we were last year. So each year, we are asked to pay attention again.\nLent is the perfect time for prayerful reflection, asking God to renew his\npurpose for us.<\/p>

If we enter these 40\ndays with the intention to draw closer to God, to be willing to let go in order\nto find freedom, I believe we will find ourselves transformed. Be brave, my\nfriend. <\/p>

Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson\u2019s column \u201cWalking our Faith\u201d publishes Saturdays in the Summit Daily News. Anderson is the author of 10 novels and nonfiction books on faith. She has lived in Breckenridge since 2016. Contact her at suzanne@suzanneelizabeths.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n via:: Summit Daily<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suzanne Elizabeth Anderson Once a week, I take Buddy, my 150-pound Newfoundland, to the dog park in Breckenridge and let him run. He enjoys chasing other dogs who are chasing balls. He has such a look of joy to be free of his leash. It fills my heart. At 8 a.m. Wednesday, I will serve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-804460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-22 01:56:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}