The second of an ongoing series of reflections on Lent. Click here to read earlier posts in this series.
Lent can easily become a challenging and ill-humored season. People who are struggling to live without caffeine or other familiar comforts can be cranky! It is easy to get caught up in accomplishing our goal, or become trapped in pride if we think we are sacrificing more than others. It can be hard to experience Lent not as a sacrifice, but as an act which deepens our understanding of our dependence on God.
I have done a variety of things to remember Lent through the years. I have done Lenten devotional studies. One year I gave up a job for Lent.
Soon after I moved to southern California, I gave up making fun of people from California who thought it was cold, which was a struggle. Fortunately, they would often laugh if I told them what I had given up, and that was almost as much fun.
A couple of years ago I decided that netflix had a stronger hold on my time and attention than was right, and I gave up netflix for Lent. People were fairly surprised, because I love movies. While I still love films, this has produced a new area of freedom in my life.
Thomas Keating, the Trappist author and psychologist, writes that he was proud of his stringent obedience to fasting during Lent, and would dramatically lose weight each year. Then, one year, his abbot challenged him to discipline himself by gaining fifteen pounds during Lent. He endured the humiliation of eating two deserts at each meal while his brothers fasted, and gained new insight into the pride that fueled his observance.
The point of Lent is not that the things we give up are inherently evil, or even that those things are the parts of our life in which we need the most growth. Rather we examine our lives to determine where we are most drawn to prepare to receive God’s direction in this season.
[ Lent image created by jezobeljones ]
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