Lent

 

Lent

 

Not my favorite season. Every year Lent comes around in the middle of winter. In our northern climate that means short days and long nights with snow, ice and cold. As if that wasn’t enough to put up with, church provides a season of self denial in preparation for Easter Sunday which has less that a fifty-fifty chance of warm, sunny weather. More than not Easter egg hunts necessitate winter gear and shovels.

 

Growing up, Lent meant a six week marathon of giving up your favorite things: candy, TV, fun activities. In our church tradition it meant no meat on Fridays making room for Mac and cheese, fish sticks, and Spanish rice followed by family devotions. It was an endurance race to see if I could make it to the end of Lent without cheating. Not exactly the intended spiritual motivation.

 

You can tell that I don’t embrace that kind of self denial as a means of getting closer to God. There is much to be said for taking personal inventory of life on a regular basis. In fact, a daily discipline of keeping short accounts with God and others is much healthier than a once a year sacrifice.

 

After more than a year of living with the consequences of COVID, a contentious political election, social and economic upheaval, I am not sure what is left to give up. Our freedom of movement, time with family and friends, eating out, no vacation, to say nothing of the loss of human life has provided plenty of opportunity for self denial and sacrifice. To make matters worse, we were denied the indulgence of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) to kick of the Lenten season.

 

The Bible exposes our desire for outward obedience while ignoring the hardness of our heart. In the Old Testament, the prophet Samuel rebuked King Saul for his disobedience which he tried to hide: “Do you think all God wants are sacrifices, empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production.”

 

Saul lost his kingship and his life. Let us not cloud our relationship with Jesus by focusing on externals and ignoring matters of the heart.

 

Do they make fish sticks anymore?