3/10/2022
3/10/2022
Dear Friends in Christ,
Every year my aunt would give up sweets for Lent – chocolate, candy, cookies, everything except the slice of homemade cake she had with her afternoon tea and dessert after dinner! As a child I admired her restraint. She always kept a dish of candy on her coffee table, and while she was never a big sweet eater she would occasionally have one as she passed by. But not in Lent – although the dish of candy still sat on the coffee table for those of us less disciplined. Lent is traditionally a time when we give things up. Even my agnostic children can be heard to say, “What are you giving up for Lent?” The things we give up tend to be things give us pleasure, often guilty pleasure, like chocolate, alcohol, coffee, social media, eating out. More recently the trend has been to take something on for Lent – a spiritual practice, donating to charity, volunteering to help others.
Over the past two years we have already given up so much why would we want to deprive ourselves of things that make our lives a little more bearable? The pandemic has reduced our capacity for coping with stress so why would we want to take on one more thing in our already overextended lives? When just keeping our heads above water is a full-time occupation, why should we agonize over whether we are doing “enough” or think we need to be “better?”
This Lent a friend in Virginia took a different approach. He recently shared on his Facebook page a meme he created for the campus ministry he serves. It is based on those challenges that have recently become so popular, such as dry January, no-shave November, the 100-day challenge, 30-day plank challenge, etc. The meme says,
This Lent I’m doing a challenge called Lent. It’s where I try to make it through every day of Lent.
He’s got a point. Right now the whole world feels like living through Lent. Maybe this year it is enough for Lent to be a time when we acknowledge the fact that life in this world is hard; existence within the confines of a human body is difficult. What if this Lent we don’t have to pretend we have all the answers, but acknowledge our vulnerability and helplessness? What if this Lent we simply acknowledge our need for God and embrace our dependence on God for anything and everything, and live fully and completely into that truth. I imagine that would automatically foster spiritual practices; automatically increase the time we spent in the presence of God. That is enough for Lent.