Um, a little bit late and lenient for Lent

Okay, so I’m know I’m a little bit late to start thinking about lent.

Hey, I’m not Catholic.  I didn’t grow up thinking about lent.  Ever.  It’s only been in the past few years that I’ve been able to own it as a spiritual discipline of my own.  Lemme tell ya, it’s been so good for me.

If your interested in joining in on the fun, read on.  No membership required to Catholic Christianity or anything else…

So how late are we at thinking about this?  Triflingly late: Lent starts on Ash Wednesday (this year, it’s February 17, 2010). Palm Sunday is March 28, 2010 and Easter is April 04, 2010. Lent is 40 days long.

Were, um, 9 days late.  Fashionably late, I say.

So, lent is about a season of repentance and discipline.  Somewhere way back in history, early Christians started using the forty days before Resurrection Sunday as a time train new believers about how to think, believe and act right as Christians.  This was done, in part by reliving all that Jesus said and did before he was murdered on the cross.

At the end of the training period, new believers would be baptized into the Church. Over time it developed into a time to look into the depths of one’s own sin and to turn away from them.

I think lent is pretty sweet because it’s partly about learning firsthand how crummy we all are.  It’s partly about how we can’t escape being a jerk, how our nature is nothing else if not divided from God.  It’s partly about how we can struggle like crazy to give over to God just one single thing!  The fact that we can have such a hard time giving God 40 days without chocolate chip cookies, or caffeine, or movies, or a day without eating, shows us one thing: just how maddening and out of reach it can be to spend 40 days -let alone your whole life- trying to do the right thing.  It bites to try and be the right person all the time doesn’t it?  I’m so glad God is graceful!

What’s makes all that pretty sweet?  Well, I think it’s pretty frickin’ awesome that in the midst of us waffling all over the place trying to sacrifice for God for 40 days we get a clear picture of how we can’t do anything right, we can’t fix our relationship with God, we can’t be like Christ in his sufferings -though we may try passionately- and even when we are trying our darndest we come to the same conclusion: we are still sinful enough to execute the God who loves us.  And in the midst of all of that hot hot mess, we can look eagerly forward to the celebration of Easter when Jesus rose showing both his power as God but also his power of sin and death.  Which is great news for us -our risen Christ leaves us no room or cause for the psychological guilt brought on our by our natural crappy ways and the consequent crappy consequences.  (Do you like my alliteration?)

Lent is a time to experience in a bold and deliberate way a new kind of responsibility.  A responsibility for our acts and thoughts.  It’s a time to discover parts of ourselves we just may want to keep buried in deep burrows of our junky soul.  It’s also a time for straight up repentance.  Repentance is turning away from that which does not please God while looking forward with expectation to the celebration which solidifies that Christ has taken our burden!

It may seem overwhelming, at first to consider having an intense focus on what Jesus did and what our response should be to that.  Forty days (well, err, less if your going to start with me) is a nice burst of time which can go a long way.

If you grow up Baptist like me or <<<insert your faith tradition here>>> you may have only heard about the “giving something up for lent,” part.  Which, let’s face it, at first glance sort of sucks.  But, press through!  There’s such a gift in it.

Here’s how it works: you give up something that you like a lot and do a lot.

You give these things up as:

• as a discipline for learning self-control, to free our minds from the chase after material things, to tell ourselves ‘no’ and make it stick;
• to identify with Christ’s sufferings, and remember what the true pleasures are for followers of Christ;
• as an act of sorrow over our wrongdoings and our state of sin.

I don’t know about you but a lot of times I go about my life not noticing the things that so easily entangle.  For example, a few years ago my Ma bought me a subscription to US Weekly magazine for Christmas.  After 6 months of weekly getting that mag I realized I hated my house, I hated my clothes, I hated my shoes and that I wanted new brand name clothes and purses.  My lusting for Halle Berry’s wardrobe & Gwen Stefani’s hand-bags was making me a miserable, unthankful, jealous jerk.  After giving up the mag for Lent -and then eventually canceling the subscription- I was SO MUCH happier, it’s redonkulous.  I was trapped like a mouse with his foot caught in the spring thinking all that stuff would be better than my life.  My normal life where I truly enjoy finding $3 shirts & $5 jeans at Wal-Mart –like I did today! 🙂

As you consider what you could give up think of a few things:

• Is there anything which may have went by un-noticed that has gained power over you or dictates your actions in unhelpful ways?  (For me, caffeine is like this.  There are days I feel just miserable without it).
• Any area in your life where God is just not in charge?
• Anything or person that unhelpfully preoccupies your life?  Your mind?

Typically food the easiest thing to give up for lent because we all like it and it eat a lot.  I’m pretty sure devout Catholics fast entirely for one day &/or meats on Fridays.  For us other non-denom types you could consider pop, snacks, fast food, pizza, etc.

One of the most helpful things I read about Lent was to choose something else if food isn’t challenging for you.  Um, okay, who isn’t challenged by giving up food?!?!

However, since I’m nursing a full out fast isn’t a viable option for me.  However, I could give up sweets. *sigh*

If choosing to give up something for lent means making a serious effort, I can’t think of anything more serious than…

chocolate.

Still doesn’t float your boat?  There’s also these options:

• television
• gambling
• impulse shopping
• catalog shopping
• leaving flaming comments on blogs and forums
• dance clubbing
• living off your credit card

I even read about someone who used the Lenten season to be more disciplined, and someone else who decided to quite cramming too much in one day which left space for silence, rest, people & surprises.

I guarantee you if you try any of these options, you will love the feeling of taking some complexity out of our typical American cluttered lifestyles.

So what am I giving up for Lent?  Well, it’s personal.  I am going to be a bit lenient on myself for a short time of the Lenten period.  I wish I could say more but my choice is a reflection of God’s grace on me.  You’ll probably see, it’s not blogging.  I did think about it, but honestly, I haven’t gotten enough joy out of it lately for it be actually sacrificial to give up.

What I did choose was something that doesn’t “represent self-torture, self-hatred, woe-is-me thinking, 40-day starvation and oceans of tears. (Many great saints and plain fools have thought that’s what He wanted.)” – A wise person.

As you consider taking on Lent please feel free to do the hustle, enjoy a game, watch your favorite movies or anything enjoyable!  Your mission -should you choose to join me- is stop the fevered pursuit of pleasure and seek real joy through being sacrificial.

One last option is to add something for lent.  Below is a list of suggestions I got from a helpful website on the idea of adding something

Adding Something For Lent

Lent is not all about giving things up. It’s also about adding good things to our lives or to others’ lives — the kind of good things that follow on what Jesus asks of us, especially that which relates to what we’re giving up. Try these:

• Reconcile yourself to someone you don’t like, or even hate or did something bad to, or just intentionally stayed away from.
• Do acts of kindness for people, just because the opportunity’s there; give them little tastes of God’s love.
• If you haven’t taken the time lately to be in a refreshing, natural spot, do so. I live on Long Island, which has wonderful beaches and bayside spots to enjoy some peace and rest. You have places where you live, too. Even if it’s a brief stay, even a half-hour or so, try it.
• Take some time to study about what causes poverty. Follow the threads as far as you can. Not only does it better help you serve Christ, but you also add into yourself a useful education in economics, sociology, and biology.
• Study, meditate, and pray over one or two Scripture passages for each day, through a daily lectionary (assigned Bible readings for each day), the Daily Office (Scripture-based devotions for set times of day), or devotional booklets or email lists.
• Think upon something ordinary that you do every day, and think about God while doing it, in a way that ties into what you’re doing. Or think of a place you come to regularly, and each time think where Christ might be in this place, what Christ might do there, or what you might be led to do for Christ.
• Check out your ethnic heritage. How do Christians in it mark the season? There are, for example, Irish carghas and Italian quaresima traditions that may be helpful to you.
• Attend special worship services. Perhaps it’s a liturgical church’s daily morning or evening prayer service (Matins and Vespers). Perhaps it’s a Wednesday Lenten service. Or maybe it’s time you started going to a Sunday morning services every Sunday, at least for the season.
• Try to find a new way every day to bring to mind Jesus’ death on the cross, and why it happened.

Well, I’d love if you thought this through & joined me!  Leave a comment & let me know when & if you do.  I’ll circle back around on Easter & we can all leave testimonies about how Lent transformed us!  And yes, I’ll share then what I gave up or added.