One well-meaning development around Lent has been encouraging people to pick up a new spiritual practice, rather than “give something up for Lent.” This comes from a healthy impulse, and it’s useful to many. But honestly, the last thing I need right now is One More Thing to do every day.
There’s very little good to be said about Lent 2020, but in addition to forcing some long-stalled innovations in online worship & other gatherings, it also was an opportunity to ruthlessly pare down our commitments.
Sure, I was suddenly forced into being Joy’s amateur IT professional and small-time televangelist (apparent contradictions very much intended). Sister Jennie became a full-time teaching assistant to four kids who were mostly too young for virtual learning, while also trying to be a primary connection point for everyone connected to Joy.
But March 2020 also cut down dramatically on the number of meetings we might attend in any given month. Most of my local monthly clergy meetings tried Zoom and pretty quickly went on hiatus instead, and few have since resumed. Other in-person gatherings had to clear a high bar in order to migrate to Zoom. The adage “this meeting could’ve been an email” became “we handled it by email” (or by phone, or by text, et cetera).
It was freeing. We got to spend more time together as a family—actually too much time for a short while. We spent more time reading together AND more time outdoors. And there’s really no going back to the way it was before.
Most of all, we learned the truth of another adage I’d long repeated but rarely put into practice: “In order to pick up something new, one must first put something else down.”
So, try something new this Lent, if you feel so led. But what would you put down or set aside—even temporarily—in order to pick up something else? What can you hand off to God, so that you can be blessed by something new?
Pastor Jon
