The Lenten season has come and gone again. Let’s face it. It was a tough decision–what we agreed with ourselves to relinquish for Lent.
Chocolate always seems to muddle the question. How to keep going and stay sweetly resolved for forty days while wandering a dessert wilderness. Why not tomatoes? After all, they’re seedy. And it is so much easier to stay away from such flagrant bursts of flesh. To soften the blow of denial, one pastor shared recently, “Don’t even ask what happened the Lent I tried giving up caffeine.”
Whatever happened, we’re back onto salsa and desserts with a relish, weighing in heavy on the thought that time of reflection on passion and hymns of refrain are over for another year. The good news is Christ has risen indeed!
But what about the possibility of keeping the refrains singing throughout the year, of staying mindful of this renewed spirit, of re-Lenting? Come, let’s sip a cup of tea, and I’ll explain.
This Lent, as so many before, I failed to deny, in good faith, any sustenance. Oh, I knew and admired others worthy to proclaim abstinence success. However, my futile attempts to follow suit always seemed so shallow, somehow never reaching me deep enough to make me feel cleansed inside–in short, to make me feel in heart and mind renewed.
What was different this Lent was that an age-old, new idea came to me, “… that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father …” (Matt. 6:18). Why not then give up something not sweet, not conspicuous, but deep within. Something carried for a long time and difficult to deny.
In my case, the baggage included a pack of negative thoughts about myself. A singularly unanimous no-confidence vote: Just not good enough; a good try, but … ; nice compliments but not deserved. My husband had encouraged me for a long time to please abstain from voting.
Finally, this Lenten season opened me to new possibilities of fasting by refusing to digest addictive negatives. I could, in essence, relent: soften my judgment, consume all manna of positives, give myself a break. Hey, good enough and even better next time; a good try and look, I did it! Thank you!
As I write this on Maundy Thursday, I have managed (although honestly challenged) to resist the negative offerings of temptation and hold true. Now with wondrous anticipation of a glorious Easter Sunday, I’m already thinking of keeping Lent going beyond.
Was there something you denied yourself this Lent? Is there something beyond Easter for you to re-Lent? To gentle yourself by giving up some bitterness toward some person? You know, the one you care enough about that his or her behavior keeps bothering you? Perhaps by opening yourself up to offer new lines of communication will be, Hey, good enough and even better in time.
Why not try with me, instead of giving up something we hold in our hands, giving up something we hold inside, opening ourselves to a new relationship that will have us feeling Christ’s resurrection more than ever before, His grace to renew, His true spirit raising our hearts to love: even our neighbor, even ourselves.
Just think of it–from Lent to re-Lent all year long.
Time for another cup of tea? Sure. I agree with you, it’s good.
Yvonne Yates Ross is a retired instructor of English in Hattiesburg, Miss., and former elder of Westminster Church in Hattiesburg. She resides in Colorado and visits, when possible, First Church in Albuquerque, N.M.
