Yesterday I posted a blog entry that began with St. Augustine saying that prayer is more powerful when accompanied by sacrifice. I thought a bit more about sacrifice over the course of the day.
In the season of Lent, some Christian denominations have the practice of giving up something in spiritual preparation for Easter - a sort of self-denial and sacrifice. I confess I never really understood this practice and I never did it. However, in 2010, it was explained to me that it helps strengthen you. If you can purposely deny yourself something you enjoy, it helps strengthen you to resist other temptations. That seemed like a practical reason to try it, if nothing else. I decided to give up "cake, cookies, candy, pie, and ice cream" for the 40 days of Lent. This was going to be quite a sacrifice for me.
So I went a step further and decided to tie it to my prayer life by choosing one specific thing to pray for each day. Every day, I posted that prayer intention on my Facebook timeline, mainly to help myself remember it. When I found myself wanting to eat a sweet treat, I went to my FB page and read my prayer intention. So I found myself praying an awful lot - much more than I would have normally.
But something else happened, which surprised me. That was the number of "likes" I got on my daily prayer intention posts. I even got likes from loving, caring people who are not religious. I asked one friend about it and he said, "Hey, I figure if you think it will do something, have at it!" In the end, my prayers, accompanied by my sacrifice, wound up being a lot more powerful by reaching so many people who joined me in prayer and support.
In a similar way, SparkPeople does the same thing. By sharing our thoughts, our successes, and our trials, we are lifting up one another and building a powerful community.
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