Today is Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, which is the end of Carnival. This is the last hurrah before sacrifice and penance begins on Ash Wednesday. Anyone that has seen what goes on in Rio or in New Orleans on Fat Tuesday would have to wonder how it all originated. Well, like many things we have ruined, it was never meant to be what it has become.
Many scenes during the festivities are inappropriate for public viewing, much less for public display. However, it seems that Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday/Carnival is steeped with debauchery and depravity and hedonism. Then, promptly at midnight, all that ceases and Ash Wednesday begins Lent, one of the most solemn and penance filled seasons. Something just doesn't add up for me.
Today's word is Romans 13:13, NLT, which reads, "Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don't participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy."
Paul wrote the Romans that Fat Tuesday didn't exist; there was no excuse to live like the devil. We are GOD'S light in this depraved world, and we need our light to shine. Fat Tuesday doesn't give us a "free pass". Many use it only as an excuse to live in the darkness, which is where light doesn't exist.
I know none of us participate in the things that go on during Mardi Gras, but, today's verse is a good reminder to be GOD'S light everyday - not just beginning on Ash Wednesday.
Be Blessed,
Mickey T
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