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The
Gift of Lent
Jack,
the painter, would often thin his paint so it would go further. So when the
Church decided to do some deferred maintenance, Jack was able to put in the
lowest bid, and got the job. As always, he thinned his paint way down with
turpentine.
One day while he was up on the scaffolding -- the job almost finished -- he
heard a horrendous clap of thunder, and the sky opened. The downpour washed the
thinned paint off the church and knocked Jack off his scaffold and onto the
lawn.
Jack knew this was a warning from the Almighty, so he got on his knees and
cried: "Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?" And from the sky, a mighty voice
thundered: "REPAINT! AND THIN NO MORE!"
Within a few weeks, another season of Lent will have started. Another
opportunity for deepening our lives will be given to us. My prayer is that all
of us will be able to receive the gift that God is offering to us during these
special days. What is that gift? What does God have for me, for you? More life,
deeper life, a fuller life. That’s a very powerful and wonderful gift, isn’t it?
God wants us to live with the deepest, fullest life possible. That’s really what
the season of Lent is all about.
We get this gift by being open to receiving it, by wanting it with all our
hearts, by asking for it over and over again, by waiting in the presence of the
Loving Giver.
We should be very clear about one thing. Lent is not a second chance to see if
we can keep our New Year’s resolutions. Lent is not really about giving up this
or that, no matter how hard this or that may be. There may be a place for some
kind of self-sacrifice but only if that self-sacrifice is done with an eye on
receiving the gift of deeper life from God.
Many of us need to do one very important thing in order to ready ourselves to
receive God’s gift-we need to empty ourselves. We need to let go of whatever is
threatening to take over our lives. That is going to be very different for each
of us. Many of us have allowed ungoverned, uncontrolled and constant activity to
effectively push out any empty space in our lives. Some of us are still trying
to consciously fill ourselves up with too many things, too much food and drink,
too much entertainment, too much work, too much shopping and so on. You can
complete your own personal list.
God does want us to pay attention to our desires, but not to our superficial
desires. God wants us to pay attention to our very deepest desires-for love, for
compassion, forgiveness, mystery, peace, silence. In other words, God wants to
give us all the gifts we really need in order to live the loving and God-filled
lives all of us really want to live.
How
does the story of the temptation of Jesus fit into all of this? In a nutshell,
the temptations were all about one thing-trying to get Jesus to live in a
worldly way instead of in a Godly way. That’s not so different from our own
struggle. Nothing could be easier than to live our lives totally immersed in our
everyday activities with only the occasional thought of what it all really
means. The spiritual aspect of our lives does not often force itself upon us.
So, Lent is a time when we are asked to once again make space for what is at the
heart of our lives.
Above
all, Lent is a time of renewal. We call it the "springtime" of the Liturgical
Year, and ask God to help us with the important task of inner renewal. Lent is
the promise of a new start for all of us, not a time of discouragement or
sorrow. Rather, it is a time when we rejoice that God is a God of refreshment,
of new life, of new beginnings. And these promises are not empty ones but are
full of the power that comes from the Christ who comes back to life in
resurrection. During the season of Lent, we can have confidence that Christ is
bringing us with him into a new and wonderful life.
Think
about it! Rev. Andrew Dougherty