Wednesday begins the Season of Lent, the six week/forty day period (not counting Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Resurrection Day when the Church takes a solemn turn to consider Jesus’ journey to the cross. We consider our sinfulness, repentance, and our own mortality. It is a season of soul-searching, a time to return to the Lord in ashes and repentance. Jesus entered the wilderness for 40 days after his baptism, and the season of Lent designates forty days that we may enter the wilderness and fully rely on God.
Traditionally, Christians have decided to “give up” something during Lent. Chocolate has always been a favorite, caffeine, cigars, or alcohol. Many people decide to take a “social media” fast, giving up Facebook or Instagram. All of these are fine, and some people may find spiritual growth in refusing a reliance of these so that they may rely on God. This year, my thoughts are drawn toward those things that I may need to give up, not just for the season of Lent, but permanently.
The Prophet Joel will proclaim to us on Ash Wednesday that God calls us to return to God with all our heart. God doesn’t call us to get everything cleaned up and then come, but to come with our hearts. God is concerned with those things we do or don’t do, but God also wants our hearts, God wants them to be pure.
Nadia Bolz Weber, a former Lutheran pastor in Denver, offered a list for the season of Lent several years ago, an action for each day, and it has been helpful to me. I offer it to you again as a reminder or a plan of how we may offer our hearts to God and observe a Holy Lent.
Day 1: Pray for your enemies
Day 2: Walk, carpool, bike or bus it.
Day 3: Don’t turn on the car radio
Day 4: Give $20 to a non-profit of your choosing
(Sunday)
Day 5: Take 5 minutes of silence at noon
Day 6: Look out the window until you find something of beauty you had not noticed before
Day 7: Give 5 items of clothing to Goodwill
Day 8: No bitching day
Day 9: Do someone else’s chore
Day 10: Buy a few $5 fast food gift cards to give to homeless people you encounter
(Sunday)
Day 11: Call an old friend
Day 12: Pray the Paper (pray for people and situations in today’s news)
Day 13: Read Psalm 139
Day 14: Pay a few sincere compliments
Day 15: Bring your own mug
Day 16: Educate yourself about human trafficking
(Sunday)
Day 17: Forgive someone
Day 18: Internet diet
Day 19: Change one light in your house to a compact florescent
Day 20: Check out morning and evening prayer online at The Daily Office.
Day 21: Ask for help
Day 22: Tell someone what you are grateful for
(Sunday)
Day 23: Introduce yourself to a neighbor
Day 24: Read Psalm 121
Day 25: Bake a cake
Day 26: No shopping day
Day 27: Light a virtual candle
Day 28: Light an actual candle
(Sunday)
Day 29: Write a thank you note to your favorite teacher
Day 30: Invest in canvas shopping bags
Day 31: Use Freecycle
Day 32: Donate art supplies to your local elementary school
Day 33: Read John 8:1-11
Day 34: Worship at a friend’s mosque, synogogue or church and look for the beauty
(Sunday)
Day 35: Confess a secret
Day 36: No sugar day – where else is there sweetness in your life?
Day 37: Give $20 to a local non-profit
Day 38: Educate yourself about a saint www.catholic.org/saints
Day 39: Pray for peace
Day 40: Pray for your enemies (you probably have new ones by now) then decide which of these exercises you’ll keep for good