Sights and Insights
O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. – Psalm 63:1 (NRSV)
We have now made it a few weeks into Lent. Have you taken on a Lenten disciple this year? Some people take on the disciple of avoiding certain things. Most people call this giving up something, but I find that to be a negative framing that loses a sense of the value of the discipline. I prefer to think of it in terms of following a discipline. That discipline may be doing less (giving up something) or it may be doing more (adding in more time of prayer, bible reading, etc.). The point is to take on something that helps us better recognize the presence of God around us.
Too often we think of taking on a Lenten discipline as a do-over on New Year’s resolutions. At the beginning of the year we pick something that we want to be better at and resolve to do it. Often people treat Lent the same way. It becomes a decision for self-improvement, at least through the Lenten season. Yet this is not really the intention behind Lenten discipline. Self-improvement can be a worthy goal, but it is not the same thing as looking for ways to better perceive the work of God around us. To better see God, the question we must ask ourselves is, “What is capturing my attention in ways that stop me from looking for God?” Maybe chocolate really is distracting you in that way, but my suspicion is that for most people giving up chocolate does not directly lead to being more open to God’s presence.
I will admit that I have not taken on any particular discipline this year. That does not mean there are not plenty of things that prevent me from seeing God around me the way I should. I would say that it was more the result of exasperation. We are still buffeted by so many challenges, and question of how we must personally decide how to approach things like masking as it becomes optional in more and more places. I would say that with all of that going on, I was feeling a bit of decision fatigue. Even trying to decide what to do as a discipline for Lent was a decision too many. I had no energy for it. I suppose, then, that in practice what I did was to try to pare down how many decisions I need to make. My Lenten discipline is to, when possible,trust seek a simple path that requires the fewest big decisions. That eliminates some of the anxiety of deciding what is best to do; that leaves time and energy to rest in God and look for what God is up to around me.
Whatever you are doing this Lent, may it help you perceive God’s love surrounding you each and every day. May the presence of God rush around you like the swirling water for which our souls thirst.