The Coming of Lent

This past Tuesday was the day before Ash Wednesday. Fat Tuesday, it's called in some places. The tradition was that you used up all the fat before the lean times of Lent. So you had doughnuts and latkes and whatever other fat fried things you could get 'cause the fat wouldn't be allowed during the forty days of Lent. If we take that analogy one step further (as I am wont to do), we are going to trim down for the season of Lent. A lot of people give stuff up. Sweets are right up there with swearing. Giving things up for Lent was supposed to show you were serious about observing this time leading up to the death of our Savior. Said out loud like that, giving up candy or saying bad words seems like a rather paltry sacrifice considering the one our Lord experienced. But hey, we're talking humans, not super humans. And really, it takes some extra human effort sometimes to stay away from stuff that occupy our minds so much of the time. Nothing is trivial as long as you're serious about it. So we try to get into the idea that giving something up is a sacrifice, that if we really want to prove our commitment to God, we can stay away from certain things, behaviors, circumstances. The problem is this:  so many times, we fail to keep this commitment that we become jaded about doing it at all. We say, "well, I know I'm not going to be able to do this, so just forget it." Instead of trying to do our best, we give up at the earliest sign of struggle. "This is too hard," my kids used to say when we would try to get them to do something new. Change is hard. I don't like things different. I get a warm, fuzzy feeling when things go along as I expected. But the season of Lent can be a time to learn new things, not just give up the old. What if instead of in-reach, we tried a little out-reach. If we reached out with the gifts and talents we have in abundance. If we tried to show a little more compassion to our fellow human beings. If we tried a little more patience while waiting in line. This could work! Don't you feel it? And if you wanted to, you could still give up chocolate. But maybe you could give some chocolate away...hmmm, there's a thought. Let's try giving to others for Lent this year and see what happens.