Wednesday of the Third Week in Lent

You shall observe the festival of unleavened bread, for on this day I brought your companies out of the Land of Egypt: you shall observe this very day throughout your generations as a perpetual ordinance. -- Exodus 12:17

Why did leaven remind the Jews of slavery? Because just as yeast "puffs up" the bread, so do our egos inflate ourselves. When we think we are the be-all and end-all of the world, we inevitably become slaves to our own desires. Instead of leaven working in us, we can have heaven working working within us. But we have to get out of our own way. We have to shift our focus from feeling good to doing good. And trickiest of all we have to to learn to love ourselves without worshipping ourselves. The leaven -- whatever you want to call it, will call to us from time to time. Let us call to God for the strength and wisdom not to heed it.

Webb