As we begin to prepare for Lent, I know many of us jump immediately to the question, "What should I give up for Lent this year?" We start thinking about all of our guilty pleasures and wondering which we could really go without for forty days. We might start out pretty ambitious ("I'm going to give up makeup, credit cards, trans fats, and crack cocaine"), but eventually we get sensible and moderate our fast to something more manageable ("okay, I've never really tried it, but I'm pretty sure I won't do cocaine in the next 40 days").
Problem is... God isn't some curmudgeon up in Heaven looking to see how much we're willing to suffer to prove our love for Him, nor is He a cranky Savior, looking for us to beat ourselves up as an expression of our gratitude for Him letting Himself be beat up for us. That's not God.
So why lent?
That's a good question, and one we're starting to think about as a church staff. Gordon pointed me in the direction of a great article by Ruth Haley Barton entitled "Lent: An Invitation to Return to God." She makes a great point by saying we shouldn't be asking "What are you giving up for Lent?" as much as asking "How will I find ways to return to God with all my heart?" I think that question gets to the heart and focus of the Lenten season.
Its about returning to the Lord with our whole being - recognizing the million ways in which we can get distracted or drawn away... and then purposefully releasing those things as we seek God in a season of spiritual intentionality.
She sees it as a fourfold movement starting with repentence - a radical honesty about our messiness; about the condition of our heart and identity. I'm going to be really honest with myself, which if I'm honest, I rarely am.
It continues by clearing away the distractions that keep us from truly experiencing God, all those little things that help us avoid spiritual reality. Ruth uses the language of "external trappings and internal compulsions" that allow us to live in a false sense of ourselves and God's presence. It might be television, it might be exercise, it might be being productive or social. The bottom line is its those things that keep us from being honest, open, and present to God and His will in our lives.
Its at this second step that I think we get caught up on "giving up" something for Lent. We assume the point is simply giving something up. We focus on the loss and the struggle of that loss. In reality its not about loss but about "focusing in." Its not that I give up something difficult, but rather that I give up something which draws me away from God so that I can enter into a deeper relationship with Him.
She writes, "The disciplines of fasting and other kinds of abstinence helps us to face the hold our sin patterns have on us and to somehow let go of these lesser satisfactions so we can recieve the deeper and more lasting gifts of the Spirit."
This year as you start thinking about Lent, take some time to honestly reflect on how you may have drifted away from God recently. Use this time as a way of identify those things that distract you from God's presence, and commit to a plan of intentionally removing them so that you can focus more fully on being present to God during Lent. Instead of looking for something to give up, look for your way back "to the one we longe and long for the most."
Some good pre-Lent questions:
- Where am I really at with God these days? In what areas of my heart have I drifted from a continual awareness of His presence? How did it happen?
- What things are the most distracting for me as I think about coming to God? (Habits, Attitudes, Thoughts, Fears, Expectations, Assumptions, etc.)
- What are some habits or practices that I can use to return to God with all my heart?
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