De-toxing your Christian Life

We have been dark at our church for the past month. Going green or going dark are not new things for businesses, but it does make us reflect on the time and energy we expend during the busy season so we eagerly anticipate the down time. Everyone needs down time. It’s a chance to relax and to re-fuel, to vacate our minds and schedules from the stresses of everyday life. Yet it seems we are reaching a time when there is no downtime.

I was disappointed this year when my down time became even more frenetic and my schedule was often too full to pause and reflect. Such is the nature of our modern world.

For that reason, we sometimes take breaks to de-tox and to refresh ourselves. Spas even specialize in de-toxification treatments. As Christians, I believe the same is true. We need to refresh and renew our bonds with Christ. The Eucharist, our monthly Communion, does just that. We take part to remind ourselves, ‘This is the body of Christ, who died for us”. We are reminded- and indeed we need to be reminded!- of our Christian bonds.

We need to refresh our memories. Christ extolled us to forgive, to be kind even to our enemies, and to follow the Ten Commandments. We need to purge and to detox our minds from the burdens of hatred and malice, of envy and greed-those shackles that tether us to the ground and keep us from looking upward to the inspiration of Christ as our Lord and Savior. That should be the meaning of de-toxing. We need to de-toxify our Christian lives.

Lord, Please help me to purge my mind from the dark and treacherous thoughts that sometimes cloud my vision. Please help me to de-toxify my soul; Help me to breathe freely and see clearly that He is the Way, the Truth and the Light forevermore. Amen.