Fat Tuesday

I love Fat Tuesday with its almost obligatory gluttony.  The Mardi Gras atmosphere, the fried chicken and dirty rice, the gumbo and bread pudding…it is all soooo good.  Fat Tuesday gives you that unspoken permission to step over that overindulgence line without any residual guilt.  

But…now it’s Ash Wednesday and I must don my sackcloth, put on ashes and 'tuff' it out for the next 40 days. 

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for Fat Tuesdays and Lent…but…widening my phylacteries and lengthening my tassels, blowing my trumpet and praying on street corners will not get the job done.  Please give me the wisdom and the strength to do Your will not mine.

Amen.