Thank God for Creamer

...if I didn't have it, I'd be in a world of hurt. My dark chocolate breve creme in my Nantucket Blend is the closest thing I have to cake at the moment. Speaking of deprivation, I am supposed to facilitate a 30 hour famine for my teen Sunday school group. I am now realizing, after about 30 hours without my favorite desserts, but with all the other foods, how difficult that famine will be. I also realize how ignorant that sounds. Considering there are children who probably haven't eaten at all this week...or ate mud cakes, convincing themselves it tasted okay. Anything to fill the belly.
Makes 30 hours, and creamer, seem pretty insignificant.
Lent is a lot about self-discovery. Redirection. It's about learning or relearning your abilities to control yourself. On the surface, I've sacrificed something superficial: cake, cookies, pies...but deeper, I am trying to relearn my ability to devote myself to something, and really mean it. I'm thinking of ways to teach this to my children, but I still think it might be too early. Only last year did they watch (parts) of the Passion of the Christ. It moved them, for certain, because we still talk about it regularly. I'm not sure they understand sacrifice, though. How do you teach them the value of self-sacrifice, of following Jesus when it is much more convenient (and fun) to follow negative influences? It's not something I'm really trying to answer just yet. Really, I'm only pondering...
I found this quote from the writings of Frederick Buechner, and decided to re-post it. I find the idea of spirtual rebirth fascinating, if, in fact, we believe it can happen:
"In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year's income to some holy use. For Christians, to observe the forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year's days. After being baptized by John in the River Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question of what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves...to answer questions like this is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become. It can be pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end."