What I Love About the Season to Come

 Confession is good for the soul.  I stink at fasting.  Really.  I forget.  I overpromise God and I fail...a lot.  If we measure Lent by adhering to one's promise to God, I am a faithless human being most of the time...and Lent, being bigger than my grandest ambitions is a great teacher of humility, because my flesh is weak weak weak.   

Success at Lent measured by letting God lead me, those stick out like jewels...volunteering in college one year, going to daily mass another, calling my sister every day to say a "Hail Mary," and one year (just one), where I gave up chocolate for the whole year, as a form of prayer.  So right now, you'll see tons of articles about "how to make this the best Lent ever" and "On beyond chocolate..." and the like.   I'm going to tell you, discernment about what God wants to give you, is part of the process.   My best Lenten plans have come from God, not me.   

What Lent teaches you, depends upon how much you're willing to listen.  Lent at the start typically has me doing a lot of talking.   This year I'm going to...and I pile on..and I read an article and that sounds good so I add to it...and I think of something I've been meaning to do, and I add it, and my Lenten promises become a virtual buffet of spiritual ambition. What all my Lents up to now have taught me, is I haven't changed since elementary school.  Sherry is very enthusiastic and creative, but she talks in class.  

Fortumately, I haven't worn out Christ like I did my teachers during school.   

One thing I know, often what God wants to tell us is the opposite of our plans.  So I'm going to try and do the opposite of my normal approach of picking everything from the menu.   I'm picking one thing.  I'm also normally talk or write of my plans for Lent.  It's a natural response of a writer, to use everything as grist for the mill.  Surrendering that temptation, to talk about it, to share it, is part of the process of trying to invert or subvert my own proclivities.  

My writing brain is already pitching a royal fit. If you don't write it down, you won't remember it.  If you don't tell others, they won't remind you.   I already know, it's the right call because of that reaction.  So, if you want to know what I love about Lent, it's that it is always an opportunity to be led, we just have to follow, and trust that this desert season is necessary for our souls, and the one leading us, will see us through safely if we allow Him.   

Get ready for Lent. Ash Wednesday is February 17th.   Ask God to help you listen and follow Him into the desert.  

Reflecting on The Best Lent

We all want a Lent that brings us to the foot of the Cross, and then Easter.
It is the how of things that we struggle with, for being fallen, we can turn anything, even a good thing, into something less.

However, being made in God's image, and God wanting us far more than we ever do Him, He loves us.  It's an astonishing thing to know in our bones.  He loves us.  He wants us nearer, always nearer.

So how do we get there?

Last night, after a conference I attended, I met several of these remarkable women at the hotel bar and asked what their best Lenten offering ever was:

One said they'd given up television as a family.  The result was a burst in creativity on the part of the kids and she saw them reconnecting.  The kicker was her telling us she tried to cheat at one point to catch the news, and the television blew up. We howled.

Another talked about her hardest Lent, when she opted to pray for each person who spoke to her, and discovered how many people she interacted with in a day.  

The third discussed choosing to wear her hair in a bun and wear a dress every day all day.

Lent is designed to take us out of our comfort zone and not merely show us our weaknesses, but show us the cure for them; a deeper relationship with Christ, as is only available through detachment from our own proclivity to sin.    We know it is God's will and God's way if what we offer brings us closer to God and each other.  Each woman's example brought them deeper and deeper in.

I love these stories because the revealed the beauty, diversity and faith of each of the women by their choices. So I'm now facing Ash Wednesday, and wondering, what should I surrender and what should I take up?

Some people say, "Don't give up chocolate."  I'd say, don't ONLY give up chocolate.  The negative must always be paired with a positive,  we pray AND fast. To engage in Lent is to do BOTH AND, to surrender something and take something else on, to peel away some of what keeps us tethered to the world, and cling harder to grace.  

So I ask the question again, what are you doing for Lent and what was your best Lent?  I'm still sifting through possibilities, but I do have some great ideas if you're feeling stumped: Circa 2012 but still worth considering.  There isn't a wrong answer or a perfect answer.  There's your answer, which is your response to God's invitation to grow closer.

Prepare yourself to walk into the desert.  Expect God to take you at your word.

Let us all go deeper and deeper in.