Lent Rant

Today I was thinking about Lent. Lent is supposed to be about sacrifice. During the period of Lent you are supposed to give up something in an effort to relate to the sacrifice that Jesus made when he died for our sins (don't worry - not going to go all holy roller at this point).

As I thought about this I came to the conclusion that we'll never be able to sacrifice enough to equal the magnitude of His sacrifice. He sacrificed so that we could be redeemed, so us in term sacrificing doesn't make a lot of sense - who is redeemed by our sacrifice? Ourselves? If so then instead of taking something away from our lives perhaps it makes better sense to add something beneficial to our lives during Lent, and make a dedicated effort to continue that effort past the period of Lent.

So that's what I've decided to do during this period of Lent. Instead of giving up something which I can very likely do without anyways, I'll use my gifts to do something that contributes to those around me in a positive way. In that way I'll be celebrating the sacrifice by doing something with the gifts I've been given instead of pretending that I can ever sacrifice enough to pay for the gift that has been given to me. So Lent for me will now become more of a period of servitude than of sacrifice.

So what to give? Hmm... Nothing monetary - that seems to be the easy way out. Until I can come up with something specific I think that for the time being I'll focus on being mindful of the effect I have on others, and actively look for opportunities to encourage them along positive paths.

On the surface this sounds easy and should be second nature but I think I will find that in practice this is going to be difficult. It's the "actively looking" part that will make this more about others than myself. It means I'll have to bite my tongue a lot. It means I'll have to see the positive in every situation and look for ways out of the negative. It means I'll have to put others first for a while and not focus so much on me. It means I'll have to do more than pretend to be nice - I'll have to mean it.

My ego will starve a bit. Maybe in the end I'm really sacrificing my ego here. But if I do so with the intent of giving to others then I think that just maybe I've stumbled into what Lent should truly be about.

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Workout Summary

14 mile run