It’s the last weekday before Cheesefare Sunday and it’s a snow day, so I’m in a big hurry. I already got the breadmaker out and it’s working up a fine, fresh loaf of bread to have with a lot of butter. And I’ve got the pot of tea here with milk in it, and I’ve had my bagel with cream cheese. But I just don’t know how I’m going to fit in the grilled cheese and the baked potato with sour cream and the fettucini alfredo and the ice cream.

Oh well. Just part of the price you pay. And I might as well start that transition now, changing my thinking from all those meat and dairy goodies we’ll have to do without to how to meet nutritional needs within the strictures of the fast. And how do you do that without a lot of Big Cooking, Big Planning … all that?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that if that’s how you usually operate, but I don’t tend to go to that much trouble over what to eat. To orient that much extra attention on my next meal during Lent seems a bit ironic, and judging from the discussion we had at choir practice, others are thinking the same thing.

So here are my thoughts on the food you can do without a lot of fuss and muss. They won’t give you enough variety to take you the whole distance, but they’ll get you by in a pinch.

I’d like to hear from others what works as “fasting fast food” for them. People get pretty resourceful sometimes, and sharing the tips can be very educational.

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Yesterday was almost too bright to look at, but today the sky is overcast again. That’s the way it goes at this time of year. This morning I heard the insistent, liquid song of a cardinal outside the window, but today the birds are silent except for the occasional bleating of migrating geese. Spring is coming, that’s for sure. But winter isn’t through yet.

I’d like to think that it was early March when the psalmist wrote in Psalm 147:

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I haven’t had much to say lately, and for once it wasn’t because I was all that busy. I just … well, I didn’t have much to say.

But on a weekend getaway I dived into a little pop culture, and if that doesn’t give you something to think about — and have fear and dread about — nothing will. These days I start to feel that though we may not be coming to the end of THE world, we’re coming to the end of A world — the end of an age, the shift from one paradigm to another.

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From this day, from this hour, from this minute, let us strive to love God above all and fulfill His holy will.

– St. Herman of Alaska 

Earlier this week, temperatures fell into the single digits and everyone bundled into coats and blankets and hunkered down to keep warm. But today the temperatures have drifted nonchalantly above freezing, the somewhat fitful February sun is making an appearance, and I find it in my heart to believe that yes, the seasons might actually change this year.

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After giving “Pilgrim’s Regress” a bit of a thumbs-down review, I’ve been finding that some snatches and excerpts of it keep coming back to me. Recently, I was having to do time-consuming, repetitive chores to get a stack of documents to print correctly, and I found myself thinking of what John’s angelic helper tells him about industrialized society. It comes from a chapter that Lewis subtitled “Seeing the evil of a technological society.”

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I tried to make my way through “The Pilgrim’s Regress” again, armed with “Finding the Landlord: A Guidebook to C. S. Lewis’ Pilgrim’s Regress.” I thought it would help me unravel all the esoteric allegories. I’d love to report that it did, but … nope. I still only partly understand who Mr. Sensible and the city of Eschropolis are supposed to represent.

Too bad, because that allegory is a unique narrative about how one extraordinary person navigated the trendy philosophies at work in the world and made it to mere Christianity. The fact that Lewis wrote the entire book in a short period of time almost immediately after his conversion shows both a great mind and a generous nature at work. Unfortunately, that haste is also one of the reasons that “Pilgrim’s Regress” is impossible for many to make out. Lewis remarked later that the book was needlessly obscure and subjective.

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What is it that makes politicians reach for the Tent Revival rhetoric to make a point? Everyone went nuts when they found out that Huckabee said in 1998 that he wanted to “take back America for Christ”, and now Michelle Obama is telling us that electing her husband to office will “fix our souls”.

Sooo … the GOP guy confused a stump speech with an altar call; the Democrat guy’s wife is confusing her husband with a messiah (or maybe hoping that we will). And, similar to the emotionalism that made the hearers of Jonathan Edwards fiery sermons pass out, people are literally swooning over Obama (HERE, HERE and HERE, for example).

Hasn’t this gotten just dumb?

I’m not saying things aren’t messed up. I’m not saying I wouldn’t like to hear spirited words about taking back the country or healing souls … in church. I want the Body of Christ to do what it was created to do — touch people, change lives, reveal the real truth of a living God, and yes, heal the nations, if possible.

And then I want the state to do what it was created to do. As Captain’s Quarters puts it:

Government doesn’t exist to save souls; it exists to ensure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense. If I feel my soul needs saving, the very last place I’d look (in the US) for a savior would be Washington DC or Capitol Hill. I’ll trust God and Jesus Christ with my soul, …

This, though, is the religion of statism distilled to its essence.

Amen, brother.

I had a fond idea of using the opportunity of the CD to provide a little education about the eight tones. But I got the education myself, and found out that the tones weren’t as I expected them to be. I think there’s some info that might be worth the read. But first, let’s catch up on what you may not know.

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In the previous blog post, I typed my e-mail address in incorrectly because … well, see the subject line above for details. I have fixed it in that post, but if anyone e-mailed me and didn’t get a reply, my apologies and please try me again at goodnightgrace2006@gmail.com