A Bowl of Fruity Pebbles. Saturday Morning cartoons sometimes had accessorizing cereals, and one of the most deliciously disgusting is Fruity Pebbles. These colorful rice smushings have been sugared and marketed with great success for over a generation. You can read more about them here, watch how they are made here, and find out where to buy them here (as if you don't know). I thought about Fruity Pebbles yesterday after Mark’s gospel account of Jesus’ temptation. Temptation is by definition tempting, and it presents itself to us in a variety of colorful, sweet, immediate ways. And, unlike Jesus’ successful refusal to turn stones into bread, temptation’s victory over us can leave us feeling as though we’ve just eaten a bowl full of rocks.

Mammon thinks it rules. Money and the lust for it, and the power of it, sure seems to be king in our world. Listen to what is important news: “Elon Musk passed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as richest man in the world last week. Musk’s net worth this week stood at $183.8 billion, $1.4 billion ahead of Bezos.” Makes you want to say “Alleluia” doesn’t it? Except in Lent, of course.

Anger. Hopeless. Trust. Despair. Hope. Confusion. Trust.  For most lament is rarely a straight path. It is a wandering towards God in the midst of pain.

Do you feel like you're in the wilderness? Have you completely lost your bearings? Are you in the ocean depths—overwhelmed and under pressure? Are you floating in an open sky—feeling disconnected from everyone and everything?

For the past 5 years, Barbara and I have made it our gift to each other to go to a beach a few days after Christmas. So, it’s a sunny and seventy-five degree New Year’s Day 2021. We’re mostly shaded by our umbrella. Barb’s caught up in a murder mystery and I’m watching the pelicans fish. I’m also reading a book, it so happens, on fishing. It’s about fishing for folks like Jesus called his disciples to do.

“Wait a minute...that’s what I weigh? Is that right?” “That’s what the scale says, sweetie. Don’t feel bad, that’s everybody this year.” I knew 2020 had been a year of stress eating. My daily dose of stress relief during quarantine was anything covered in cheese dust (popcorn, Cheetos, Pringles, chips, goldfish, etc.). And yet I was still slack-jawed in the doctor’s office, staring at that number. I just wasn’t prepared to see exactly how much I had gained. That was a week ago, right before Christmas. And now...to plan.