Pause In Lent #6 - Fast Forward

The last Lent Pause before Easter. I haven't been as disciplined this year. Previous years I have given up, or given away, and my attempt at 40 Acts this year has been very haphazard. I have been nothing like as diligent as the Dormouse, and I really applaud her efforts - and her honesty in sharing them with us. But I have been conscious of an increasing restlessness inside me for change. My heart aches when I see homeless refugee children, but rejoices when I hear of the gratitude of the families helped by our local foodbank, because our Church sent Easter Eggs for their little ones as well as their usual cans and packets. Faith - and fasting - without actions achieves little. Isaiah 56 says this...

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice

    and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –

when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression,   

with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry
    and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
    and your night will become like the noonday.

Lord, help me to remember these words, and act on them, not just through these 40 days of Lent, but from this day forward, for the rest of my days.