It’s Ash Wednesday, again. I often start Lent with wonderful intentions to write about what it means and what I think about it. Usually I post on Ash Wednesday then…. nothing! This year it’s going to be different!
A friend Tweeted the question: “Give up or take up?” – the perennial query for Christians approaching this time of penitence and preparation. There is a temptation to renew New Year resolutions related to living a more healthier lifestyle, giving up alcohol or cakes etc. It’s too easy to anticipate such an undertaking, with good intentions. Lent is about more than good intentions, though.
Equally, we might enthusiastically take on a new commitment – resource dependent – that, on reflection, is not sustainable and cannot be continued, leaving us feeling just as much a failure as if we tried to drop cakes and booze (other challenges are available!).
Lent isn’t about (not) doing stuff for me.
It’s about forgoing ‘self’ – letting go – and focusing on a spiritual readiness prior to Easter, acknowledging the death and resurrection of Jesus. Perhaps there is stuff I will set to one side, or take on as an extra commitment. It must be sustainable but, if I fail, I acknowledge that I can try again…. and post to this blog on another day…. during the same Lent 😉