I am in my woods focusing in on a sacred moment after a new snowfall when the “blinkies” start flashing in my viewfinder. This is a sign that the area flashing in the photo is over-exposed. There is a highlight button on the camera that warns me when this situation occurs. However, snow is bright and how do I get this shot so that its not over exposed or in layman’s term the image is “washed out.”
This sounds like our dilemma as we begin another Lenten Season. What do you plan to focus on in the next forty days? In the past, you tried your share of weight reduction promises-no chocolate or ice cream. Or, maybe you got serious and took Lent to a new level and tried to cut down on your drinking and smoking. You made your doctor happy, but you were miserable for the six weeks until you celebrated at Easter and started back where you began. With our blown highlights, let me suggest another way to enter this season of repentance.
Jesus takes for granted three practices central to Jewish devotion: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. He does not doubt that his disciples will continue to keep these practices. His only concern is that they pray and fast and give alms in the right spirit: not to impress people, but to deepen their relationship with God.
Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving need not be quaint, obsolete customs confined to the pages of a user manual in our Bible. They can reappear in a contemporary lifestyle, one that calls into question the status quo, that refuses easy answers, that exchanges contemporary craziness for deep-down, delicious sanity. This is a lifestyle that gets us right with God, with creation, with other people, and even with ourselves.
Ask people how they're doing, and so often the answer includes the word “busy.” People take their own busy-ness and other people for granted--almost. They want to be absolved of their busy-ness by something less drastic than cardiac arrest. So if you want to live a life in the spirit with creation, then pray. Leave some empty space for God. Give up rushing.
Ask yourself, do we have stuff or does our stuff have us? Are we stuffing our houses, our bodies, and our lives to the point of no return? Then down the road Jesus comes talking about fasting. If you want to live in the spirit with creation, then fast. Don't exist as simply a consumer. Unclutter your life.
So often we experience the world as full of strangers. We do not look for the connection between them and us. The humanity common to them and us goes unrecognized. Their problems have nothing to do with our problems, or so we say.
Ask yourself, do we know the person in the pew two rows in front of us? If you want to live a life worthy of creation, then give alms. Not just a few coins, but the love in your heart. Always look for the connection between you and that other person. Treat no one as a stranger.
Don't leave the message of Lent flashing like a “blinkie’ indicating that we are out of focus. Live your life “tact sharp” and in sharp focus: give up rushing; unclutter your life; treat no one as a stranger. Do these things, make them your lifestyle, and you'll find yourself walking to the rhythm of Jesus and the saints.
Immanuel prays for us as we reflect; “But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you.” (Psalm 130:4).
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that our Lenten journey may be tact sharp with words and deeds that bring us closer to you and one another.
