Joel 2.12 ‘Even now,‘ declares the LORD, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.‘

Yesterday, because St. Louis has such a rich French history and flavor, Fat Tuesday was celebrated here with all the hype and party of a New Orleans Mardi Gras. Fat Tuesday, February 28, 2006. This was the day I picked up a book at the library entitled, “The Fast Track One-Day Detox Diet.” A few days before that, I had picked up “The Fat Flush Plan.” Both books lay on my study floor begging the “I NEED A WEIGHT-LOSS FORMULA” reader (that would be me) to come in and “get rid of fattening toxins . . . melt fat from hips, waist and thighs in just two weeks.” Oh my goodness. I’m smiling.

Detox. What’s up with that? Why do I have two books by the same author on the same subject? Here it is the beginning of Lent and Fat Tuesday and fasting and . . . This is interesting to me. Why now? Hmmmm.

Detox is actually the shortened form of “detoxify.” From the dictionary: 1. To counteract or destroy the toxic properties of. 2. To remove the effects of poison from. 3. To treat (an individual) for alcohol or drug dependence, usually under a medically supervised program designed to rid the body of intoxicating or addictive substances.

From Fat Tuesday to Ash Wednesday – today! A complete and sudden withdrawal from fat to lean. I’m calling it Detox Wednesday. God is talking. I don’t know how He manages to push my buttons “for such a time as this” – but He is. And it’s not about weight-loss either, at least primarily. Detox is about changing the heart. It is Lent’s great invitation: Return to me (your God) with all your heart.

This will be my 49th Lent of ‘returning to God with all my heart.’ How many for you? Insanity is defined as doing the same thing over, and over again, expecting different results. Right. For the 49th time (multiplied) the invitation to return to the waiting arms of the Father is here. It’s an extraordinary invitation. But our God, our Papa is insistent, loving, gently prodding. He is waiting faithfully, eagerly on the road for our return. There are no folded arms and stern judging stares, only the straining eyes of a Father eager for our return, longing to embrace us and rejoice in us.

Yet so much time is spent trying to think of how to return and what to say, how to begin the conversation. It’s only when we finally appear after so much time away, embarrassed and confused, that we understand we don’t have to say anything. We only have to show up. Detoxification ensues. Sweet clean.

I want to begin a conversation about a “Lenten Detox.” “A clean heart create for me, O God,” Psalm 51 offers. “Give me back the joy of your salvation.” I want to use Rembrandt’s painting of “The Prodigal Son,” along with Henri J. M. Nouwen’s The Return of the Prodigal Son. If you are not familiar with the painting, go here: http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/rembrandt/1660/return-prodigal-son.jpg

It’s time for detox – for ridding and returning.