Musings from a Pastor, Educator, Wife, and Mother





Thursday, March 9, 2017

Giving In Lent, Living In Lent

Lent is such an interesting season in the church year.  Not all Christian traditions or denominations practice the season of Lent and I can understand why.  Lent is meant to slow us down, to bring our attention to the trials and hardships Jesus faced in the time leading up to his final hours, death, and resurrection.  Lent seems to me a very somber season, one which we begin with ashes, being reminded that from dust we have come and to dust we shall return. For most of us, we'd rather get to the fun celebrations of Easter, the glorious Hallelujah Chorus, and all of the secular enjoyments that Easter brings.  But, you cannot have Easter without Good Friday.  You cannot truly engage in the joy of the Resurrection, without experiencing the darkness and depths of our Lord's suffering. 

Lent is best known as the season for giving up something for forty days.  In a spirit of fasting the way that Jesus did in the desert and in the same way that generations of Christians before us have practiced, we tell ourselves that we are making sacrifices to remind us of our Savior's ultimate sacrifice on the cross. For some people, who are deeply entrenched in this digital age, giving up screen time or social media is a choice. One of which many say is very freeing.  A lot of times this means giving up soda, caffeine, or sweets from our diet.  These are admirable goals (I for one don't know that I can give up caffeine anymore) but I wonder if they truly help us get at the point of Jesus' life and teachings. 

In recent years there has been a movement not to give up something, but to take on something.  There have been special daily devotions written, forty day photo challenges which illustrate the importance of the season--and these things I truly love and have used in my own spiritual practices.  Taking on a spiritual practice for many of us does mean letting go of something else to make room for those practices to come to life. 

This year, I am encouraging you to do both. I am encouraging you to give in a way that is truly sacrificial for you.  What if every day or every week you cleaned out a closet in your home and donated it to a charity of your choice? This is what I plan to do myself.  It is beneficial to other people and to me as well.  What if you gave up eating out in restaurants and for 40 days you saved that money and donated it to an organization for which you have a passion?  What if, you gave up one of your treasured Saturday or Sunday afternoons, or took one of your minimal vacation days to use your hands and feet in service to God and others? 

I am inviting you to give of yourself in Lent.  Just as Christ called you to do--to take up the cross, to leave what is of comfort and familiarity to you, to follow him.  I am inviting you to live into lent and focus on ways in which you can live into your faith.  Perhaps, when the forty days are over, you will not only have made an impact for a season, but changed the way you approach a life of faith for years to come.