I always find this time of year strange. The beginning of the year goes so fast, especially when talking about the Christian calendar. This year Easter, and therefore the season of Lent are fairly late, but it still seems to come up quickly. I find it challenging sometimes how quickly we move from the celebrations of Christmas to the somberness of Lent.
Which leads me into my thought for this week. For the season of Lent it can be customary for some people to give something up. The giving up of something is meant as symbolism and of a way of trying to bring one closer to God in preparation for Easter. Lent has 40 days, which symbolizes the 40 days that Jesus was alone in the desert, which references the 40 years the Israelite people wandered the desert. By giving up something for lent it is a symbolic gesture to coincide with Jesus’ time spent in the desert.
Perhaps we can re-phrase this concept of Lent. What if we changed it to pick something up, give something up, or change something up? A lot of the time the default is to give something up that perhaps isn’t that meaningful in your life, like for one to stop eating chocolates. What if instead for Lent we looked at it as a way of re-evaluating who we are as children of God, of looking at our lives and seeing if there is something that we could add, or lose or change that would in the end add to our spiritual life?
I think the point of Lent is to try to bring one closer to God. Perhaps looking at ourselves, deeply looking at ourselves and seeing what is in our lives that matters, what maybe is missing, what maybe doesn’t matter that we can part with, what baggage we may be carrying that we need to get rid of, or that we need to change. Perhaps for you that is giving up chocolate. Perhaps it is giving up an attitude, perhaps it is changing an outlook on life, perhaps it is changing sleeping patterns. The important thing for me is if I am giving up or changing up I am doing it with intentionality, with a purpose.
It could be that you look and find that something is missing, that you want to add to you life instead of taking something away this time. Adding a time of prayer, or mediation. Adding a walk, or a time to feed the birds, or of silence. Adding a time to talk to a friend or family member each day. It really could be anything.
I think the point of Lent for me is not to do something just to do it, but to do something that actually has an importance in my life. Something that in the end enriches my life, my relationship with God and my relationship with all of creation.
Maybe you will have something you want to pick up, something you want to give up, and something you want to change up. Literally the sky is the limit when it comes to how you can enrich your life and the lives of those around you.