Shame and Grace VIII

 ... appearing to them during forty days ...

 - From Acts 1

Forty days is a long time. It is about half a season. The beginning of your forty days may be sunny and warm, with a lot of outdoor activities at pools and lakes. But by the end of it, you will hear the sound of leaf blowers and see the Friday Night Lights. You may start off your forty days with a foot of snow on the ground, but by the end of it, your grass is turning green and small buds are forming on your trees.

Lent is forty days long. It begins in the stark of winter, and ends on Easter Sunday, usually as spring is bursting forth. It's the perfect time frame, to complete a project, or develop some discipline. A month isn't quite long enough to do this.

You can get a lot done during forty days. Forty days prior to today, was March 29th. I was in the middle of Spring Break . . . getting to none of the work that I wanted to complete, due to a long, lingering cold or flu, the one that began with three days of severe dizziness. But today, I am in the middle of our performance season for HEC . . . and have just completed a wonderful recital, accompanying Charlotte Darr. Forty days ago, I had not even begun to contemplate preparing for that event. 

Noah was in the Ark for 40 days. Moses went up the mountain, for 40 days. Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days. And then after His resurrection, up until his Ascension, Jesus spent 40 days . . . forty final personal days, with His disciples. The idea of taking things on, in chunks of 40 days, is instructive. 

Consider our individual roles in changing our culture, especially our on-line culture. There is too much shaming, marginalizing, dividing. 

Let's have Forty Days of Grace. Let's look, one more time, at how long are Forty Days:

Forty Days from today, May 8, is June 17
Forty Days from my birthday, August 18, is September 27
Thanksgiving this year (2018) begins a forty day period that ends on New Years Day
Forty Days from Christmas is February 3 (day after Groundhog Day)
Forty Days from New Years Day is February 10 . . . right in the middle of the Presidents/Valentines/Ash Wednesday season

For Forty Days: no snark, no belittling, no insults, no categorizing others. Don't even tease. 

Especially on-line.

What if the three or four people that read this blog regularly, took on the Forty Days of Grace? It would begin on Thursday, May 10, and end on June 19.

If I get even one word of encouragement, in the form of a post to this blog, then I will promote the idea to my 1,500-plus Facebook friends. 

How about it?