This blog post comes a little late, but I nevertheless
wanted to write about it.
2013 was one of the first years I participated in
Lent. In the past, I always viewed Lent
as part-time Christians embarking on a diet.
Folks who are anything but religious somehow flip a switch on Ash
Wednesday. Many people I know would just
use this ‘Holy accountability’ to ditch sweets and lose weight. This is a cynic’s lens, and I understand that
looking back.
Times have changed, and I don’t look at it that way
anymore. If non-spiritual people want to
eliminate alcohol for 40 days and 40 nights, fantastic! It’s their prerogative and hey, who knows,
God works in mysterious ways –- you never know how someone may be drawn closer
to Christ. Everyone has a different
journey, and I’m certainly not in a position to call any journey better or
worse.
So this year, as opposed to being a pouting by-stander
boycotting Lent (sounds Christian, doesn't it?), I decided to give it a shot. And lucky for me, Jessie was going to do it with me. We thought through a list of things to give
up or take on, and eventually settled on an idea we had gotten from someone in
our small group: no noise while in the car. This means no music, radio, or talking on the phone while commuting.
It’s not very often in life that I just get silence. Phones are always ringing, people are always
around, and everyone is so busy in life that silence is rare. It’s amazing, too, that one of the only
refuges I have for complete silence is commuting in my vehicle. I had developed a habit of always turning on
the radio or listening to music, which often times, I’ll admit, is fantastic! Don’t get me wrong, some of my favorite
moments in life are in the car jamming out or cracking up listening to BaD
Radio. But after Lent, I noticed that
many times I turned on the radio or cranked up the iPod, it was simply out of
habit as opposed to deep-down desire. It
was as if I was ‘filling space’.
My experience surpassed all of my expectations. I found myself much more organized as I had
time to sit in silence and structure my thoughts. I found myself reflecting on a day or
situations that occurred. And most
importantly, I found myself praying (eyes open, of course!) -– having numerous
‘side-conversations’ with God. All of
this wouldn’t have happened had it not been for Lent.
It’s amazing how simple some of this seems, yet it all
adds up to something spectacular. I’m
beginning to realize this is a common theme in all of life.
Hope everyone had a blessed Easter!
