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Give up resentment and become forgiving
Give up hatred and return good for evil
Give up complaining and be more grateful
Give up pessimism and become more hopeful
Give up worry and become more trusting
Give up anger and become more patient
Give up pettiness and become more noble
Give up gloom and become more joyful
Many of us were taught that giving up sweets, television, movies, favorite foods and the like, was the essence of Lent. It was thought that the act of foregoing life’s pleasures, great and small, for the 40 days before Easter would somehow make us better people. But as is often the case, the means became more important than the end; the act of giving up rather than the spiritual growth it was meant to foster became the main focus and goal of Lent.
In fact, the discipline involved in giving up what we enjoy or what gives us comfort can be a good thing if doing so leads to our becoming deeper, stronger, wiser and more spiritually attuned; who we become is the point and purpose of the discipline. Author Vannetta Chapman, to whom the above list is attributed, has her finger on the real point of “giving up,” as well as the kinds of things we might let go of in order to become our best selves.
Understood spiritually, Lent is a time of preparation for Easter which is not only a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection, but a reminder that we are summoned to leave behind what entombs us. Attitudes like resentment, hatred, complaining, pessimism, worry, anger, pettiness and gloom, can be graves in which we linger and languish for a lifetime. Without realizing how it came about, we can find ourselves with at least one foot in graves that render us lifeless and in need of resurrection.
What better to give up than that which makes us “dead men and women walking?” How better to enter into Lent than by identifying the attitudes to which we cling, and that prevent us from being fully alive?
Questions or comments?
Reach out to Tom Stella, NCC, Corporate Chaplain, at Tomstella37@gmail.com.
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