Lent 2011

Sometimes Lent sneaks up on me. I mean let's be honest, I don't look forward with great anticipation to the sacrifice and penance that comes with this season. It's not fun. It's a reminder that I, and those I love, will perish and that suffering and death are very real things.

And so once again, I go through options in my head to answer the age old question, "What are you doing for Lent?" I could do something extra. I could give something up. I could do both. I should do both.

But more this year than any other, I think my attitude about the doing needs more attention than what the doing will actually be. I just wrote, I don't look forward with great anticipation to the sacrifice and penance that comes with this season.

Shame on me. Because I know that sacrifice and penance are the keys to my salvation and exactly the things that unite me with Christ most profoundly. What else can we do on earth that is like Him? 

Can I heal? 

Can I speak with great wisdom and revelation?

Can I walk on water or feed the multitudes?

Can I love perfectly and live without sin? 

No. 

But I can hunger. 

I can hurt. 

I can give.

I can pray.

I'm being asked to share in His humanity this Lent, because that's all I have to offer, it's all He really wants - and in this is my salvation! What's not to look forward to? So let my prayer, fasting, and almsgiving reflect the joy it is to be one of His and may they be done piously, humbly, and compassionately.