Now the Acceptable Time?

"Working together, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
For he says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." - 2 Corinthians 6:1-2

I don't know about you, but time seems to be one of the common hang-ups between me, God, and my friends lately. Our culture is SO instantaneous for one. We want everything right now. Also, society tells us we should have a timeline for everything. That there is an "acceptable time" to have kids, get married, stay in a job. But we all know that what society deems acceptable is not what we should live our lives by.

So I've been wondering lately, "what is God's acceptable time??". What does HE deem as an "acceptable" amount of time to be in a job, to be single, to discover vocation. I like to think God doesn't put a time-line on these things, but rather gives us what we need when we need it.

This concept of acceptable time is going to be a good thing for me to start off reflecting with during Lent, since it does seem to be an issue I struggle with. There's also the Gospel for today that begs us not to talk about our fasts in public or go around like hypocrites telling everyone how great we are for fasting.

But here I go... Imma gonna tell you how I'm fasting this Lent ;)

There's accountability in that, right?

Well, how 'bout this. I'm doing a couple things: trying to round out the tri-fecta of "prayer, fasting, and almsgiving". Doing something by praying in a certain way, Offering up something(s) as a sacrifice, and cutting out something(s). (are the latter two the same? Perhaps. But I know what I mean in my mind. I think offering is almsgiving and cutting out is fasting...right?)

One thing I know I need in order to better figure out this acceptable-time-deal with God is to cut out some of the NOISE in my life. I have found I am not as good of a listener as I used to be- with God and with others. But particularly with God. God doesn't have Twitter, and this is unfortunate. It would be SO much easier if he did and He could give me a play-by-play update.

I have my Twitter feeds (I flirted with the thought of giving that up like I did Facebook last year, but my "tweeps" revolted ;), my text messages, my email, my ipod...I never thought I would be that girl after I left the convent. Now I can't believe I didn't have a cell phone when I was a postulant. How did I manage??

So I know it's doable to be without the noise- I did it before, and I can do it again. And hopefully, it's what God wants. I'm not going to be listening to music in the car (and as GOD would have it, I sat in an hour and a half of traffic this morning. Just to tempt me, no doubt! Turns out, I spent that "silence" swearing at crazy drivers, so I'm going to have to work on using that silence well ;) and I'm also- instead of abandoning my tweeps altogether- just curbing my connectedness slightly and not having all my updates sent to my phone. I know that sounds major-lame, but I really do think it will keep me focused on God and give me more opportunities to listen to Him rather than the chatter around me.

So Lenten goal? Eliminate Noise in my life to contemplate the Acceptable Time.

And I'm sooo grateful because I am going on a retreat this weekend to kick off Lent! I know, I know- I just went on a retreat. I didn't think I'd need one yet either. But with the snow came much "white noise", if you will, and it turns out now IS the acceptable time to retreat.

God is good! Happy Lent!
Peace,
Julia