An Alternative Lent

I have never been a great fan of Lent.  I suppose it’s that I don’t have a very penitential sort of personality.  Actually, it’s not that I’m not penitent.  It’s just that I’m a terrible backslider.
 

The thing that has always bothered me a little bit about Lent is that the unspoken premise seems to be that God likes people to be unhappy.  That isn’t right, of course, but especially as a child, it sure seemed that way to me.  So, once a year, just to keep God satisfied, I had to give something up that I liked.  It was often chocolate.  Later on, I moved on to more sophisticated pleasures to go without during Lent.  It wasn’t the end of the world, but I did miss these things.  And it seemed sort of a pro forma exercise that didn’t really have much of a point.
 

Now this seemed odd to me since God had made those pleasurable things I was giving up in the first place.  And on top of that, what I was taught was that God wanted us to be happy and created material things for our enjoyment.  Why was it, I wondered, that for 40 days, once a year, we were all supposed to act as if that were not true, give up the good things God had made, and be unhappy?  It was better, too, if you could feel guilty.  I didn’t get it.
 

And then I came to understand Lent differently.  I came to understand it as being about health.  It wasn’t supposed to make me unhappy.  It was supposed to help me be healthy.  It is an alternative Lent.
 

And at that point I started thinking about Lent in a different way.  Instead of giving something up, particularly something I liked, I started taking something on that was healthy.  Giving up something was actually OK, as long as it was giving up something because it was unhealthy and not just because it was pleasurable.  So, Lent became about giving up what was not healthy or taking on what was.  Lent stopped being about misery and started being about healthy.
 

What I have taken on has been different in various years.  Some years it has been getting some rest.  Some years it has been overdue trips to the doctor.  This year it will be spending more time with my wife, who has finally completed the move to New York.
 

I’m taking the opportunity of Lent to begin our New York adventure.  We will be more intentional about time together.  We’re going to pick areas of the city to explore each weekend.  We are going to talk.  And walk.  And, Lent notwithstanding, have fun.  That seems to me to be much more what God has in mind with this annual opportunity of Lent.
 

Lent is now an annual opportunity to get me to do something good for myself.  Lent has stopped being about God punishing me for being human, which never did make much sense to me, and instead become a way of God helping me be healthier.  I like that a lot better.  I even look forward to it.
 

We are, in the words of the Prayer Book, invited to a “holy Lent.”  May it be a holy and healthy one this year.  That sounds a lot more like God to me.  And, perhaps, you may have the opportunity to discover what it is that really does make you happy.  And human.
 

Peace,
+Stacy