Over the weekend, Kathy and I had mused about how often Lent zips by and we come to Holy Week having done nothing. There we were last night enjoying the waning moments of the passage of the Health Care Reform Bill, seeing how similar the last-period excitement was to watching the last minutes of the close games, when I remarked “It’s a lot like Lent; it’s not too late to tune in for the last quarter.” Kathy smiled at the idea. “You should put that in your blog”, she said. “Good idea”, I said.
It’s not too late to begin your Lent. A Good Story used during the year is the one about the owner of a vineyard who hires workers in the morning, and then more at noon. At the end of the day he pays them all the same. Like that owner, God seems to reward us for where we end up, forgiving our late start. These two weeks, these 14 days, provide all of us the opportunity to finish the journey, to share the doubt, and to share the win.
Here’s the daily drill:
- Enter the Good Story. This week it’s a long one, (Click here for a link) so we’ll take a few verses each day. Don’t just read it; enter it like the Good Story that it is, like when you were a kid sitting in a sunny window with a good book. Start with the first few paragraphs, while they are at table.
- Examen – each night as you are ending your day, look back. What experience brought you closest to your most true self, made you feel whole, made you feel good in your skin? And what experience did the opposite, made you feel uncomfortable with yourself, wrong in the way you acted? Feel inside yourself as you recall these contrasting experiences. Which draws you to itself; which repels you?
- Fasting – like a ring on your finger that reminds you of a relationship, what can you do over these next 14 days that reminds you of the company we are keeping on this uphill climb?
- Almsgiving – watch each day for the humanity in those you see – your spouse, your co-workers, your neighbors, the strangers on the street. Look into their faces. If you see a need there, be present to it. Respond as your heart calls you.
FreeLemonadeStand by John J. Daniels is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteOur Paris apartment has a wonderful "rain garden" shower head that invites one to stand under it for hours on end. My shower practice for many years has been to run the water only for getting myself wet and rinsing myself off. I turn the water off otherwise to remind me that water does not flow so freely (for drinking, let alone washing) in most parts of the world. For some reason, while reading your blog this morning, it finally hit me that what I have been doing is "fasting" when I take my shower. That small act of turning off the water while I soap up is like the "ring" you talk abut that links me to the wider world that I journey with through life. Thanks for helping me put a name to something.
Bill