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A few days ago I went to a friend’s birthday celebration dinner. I love my friend and her partner and I’d do anything I could for either of them. So dinner at Swiss Chalet – sure! Of course I’d go if I could get one of my attendants to accompany me.
I’d say there was about 20+ in attendance, so the row of joined tables became quite long. In sitting and observing for a moment, I heard a woman at the opposite end of the row ask: “Is Lent over yet? I want a coffee so bad! I gave up coffee for Lent and I want one so bad! When’s Lent over anyway?”
There are moments where I can become simultaneously grateful for and frustrated with my speech impediment, joined with the fact that my voice often extends only about three feet, then takes a ninety degree nose drive into the floor. Trust me, with my Gemini characteristics of split second thought and instant response, my speech impediment has often saved others from my politically incorrect comebacks. In this case I was appreciative that this woman wasn’t in my vocal range. If she had been, my remarks would have likely offended her, or even worst, hurt her, which is a practice I really disdain taking part in – hurting others.
Still, her questions greatly disturbed me for a few reasons. First, she obviously had very little knowledge as to the theology and significance of Lent. And second, like millions of Christians, she had (most certainly unintentionally) trivialized the entire point of “giving things up” for Lent. I suspect her only real knowledge of the Lenten season was secondhand, in hearing others talk about “giving something up” for it.
I often hear people proclaim such trivialities as: “This Lent I’m not watching my favourite TV show – nope, not at all – not even the previews!” “I’m not playing any card games ‘til after Easter!” “I’m giving up chocolate for Lent (or coffee)……… but boy, after Lent is over, I’m gonna have a triple-triple-triple!”
Whenever I hear such comments I think to myself “How very sad. I mean really? Really? That’s it? That’s the best you can come up with? You’re really going with that?”
Did Jesus really spend 40 days in the wilderness (46 actually, if you count Sundays – and I really don’t think he retreated from his barren location just to take Sundays off) just to teach us to temporarily give up trivial pleasures? Is this really what his entire teachings consisted of?
The Lenten season is meant to be a time for us “Christians” to reflect and be mindful of all that Jesus had gone through, both during his 40 days in the dessert and during his entire ministry. It’s also a time to prepare to celebrate Christ’s resurrection and the significance it holds for us. It’s a time to cleanse our spirit so that we can enter into a closer relationship with our heavenly father and with Jesus himself. So how can we even attempt to do this.
First, lets think about the amazing heart of Jesus. Jesus was kind, caring, loving, forgiving, compassionate, and merciful, among many other things; but did folks make it easy for him to be so? No! People gave Jesus more than countless reasons to, not only become, but to remain, angry, bitter, and resentful. He could have been arrogant and conceited. Remember, he KNEW he was the best and would hold that record forever! After all, ya can’t beat perfection, and despite what some folks may think, no human being will ever outdo God.
Instead, Jesus gave up many things. When the high priests hassled him, he gave up being irritated and instead gave tolerance. When the multitudes crowded him and asked for healing, he gave up his “personal space” and instead gave patience and mercy. And when he was ridiculed, abused, flogged and then crucified, he forgave and asked his Father to forgive.
So should we at least try to give things up during Lent? Yes, absolutely! But the things we should give up need to be more than trivial tangibles and I’m sorry, it will take much longer than 46 days to do so, with much more effort than it took Jesus.
For Jesus, it was his “first nature” – inherited in every fiber of his being, not to hate. His heart – the heart of His Father – was a heart of love. This is not to say that he didn’t experience such emotions as anger, frustration, hurt, sadness, grief and such, but his heart always returned to his first nature – love.
As human beings living in a world surrounded with sin, sadly, our first nature has become pretty altered and not for the better. No longer are those incredible qualities of Jesus our first nature, but sometimes, with God’s enormous help, they can become our “second nature”. There’s a good reason why the term “second nature” has become so common in our speech. Many of our best qualities which God had intended and placed within us are no longer instinctive. Those things no longer come into our hearts and minds first. We often think of others, after ourselves. We often hold on to our hurt and anger as means of “never letting that happen again!” Sometimes we wear our resentment as a badge of honour – to show others just how tough we are – how independent we can be. “I don’t need you! I don’t need anybody! And I certainly don’t need this Jesus character!” With this badge proudly displayed for all to see, we can deny our own vulnerabilities. We can keep our distance – “I don’t need no one and no one needs me.” (Hmm, think about that revealing sentence for a second.) And with this intangible medal, we feel safe – “No need for me to care or get involved. I only look after #1! – Me, of course! I don’t need to act or get involved. I can pass the buck on to someone else.” Yup, this badge seems pretty desirable, especially in today’s world.
Yet, how can we be “followers of Jesus” (assuming we want to be) if we act in direct contradiction to how he acted? If we don’t even try to stop our hearts from becoming cold & callous; our minds from becoming cynical, judgmental and full of doubt, how can we even attempt to follow in his footsteps? Pat Williams (with Jim Denney), in his book “How to Be Like Jesus” repeatedly says that although we have absolutely no chance to ever be as good as Jesus, we should always strive to be like Jesus!
A guy I knew while attending a former church, had a T-shirt that was simply marked WWJD. He told us of how when it was new, he wore it everywhere! He wore it to work in the factory. He wore it while playing sports and attending sporting events. He wore it on dates and out in public, walking the busy downtown streets of Halifax. People sometimes asked what the letters stood for. Others figured it out on their own. He was teased, made fun of, asked if he owned any other shirts – any “regular” shirts. People called him a Jesus freak. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more mindful of what Jesus would do – in any given situation. I’ll admit, at first, I didn’t get his seemingly almost obsession with this one single T-shirt either. But as I grew in my own faith, I finally got it. For it wasn’t so much the T-shirt itself, nor the lettering. It was just a tangible reminder to himself, upon becoming a Christian, to strive to follow in Jesus’ footsteps – with all his heart, soul, mind and spirit. He strived to be as kind as he could possibly be; to be as caring as he possibly could be; and to show others the heart of Jesus, as much as he possibly could.
So, should we “give up” things for Lent? Yuppers! We should strive to give up our anger, our apathy, our selfishness, our arrogance, our intolerance, our hurt and our hardening hearts. Yet it shouldn’t be only for the Lenten season that we give these things up for. We should give them up for all time. Nope, it won’t be easy. We’ll fail repeatedly and often miserably, but we need to start; and there’s only one way we can start. We have to be willing to let go of our own hearts and allow God to truly place the heart of Jesus within each one of us. For unless we have the heart of Jesus beating within our first nature, we will severely miss the point of our entire being, especially in our relationship to Jesus and all he’s done for us through his death and resurrection.
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“I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. 2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” 3 I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine — my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. 4 I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. 5 I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6 I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the children of man. 9 So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. 12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. 13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness.” – Ecclesiastes 2:1-14 (ESV)
