LENT—The Power of Less
Thank God it’s almost Lent!
I mean, another few days of the welcome St. Mark’s people have been showering on the Fullers
and I’d be stone cold dead. Don’t get me wrong—we love being fed for a month better than any
doctor I’ve ever known would countenance for a single day; we adore partying and visiting; we
revel in your kind and generous reception. But the moment is reached, and that none too soon
for my cholesterol count, when we must put aside the gaudy caviar and tenderloin times and
settle down to the salad and Metamucil of normal life together.
Which, in truth, Lent is really about. It’s a mistake to think Lent is just about giving up
chocolate or whatever else is our favorite indulgence. I guess we mostly think we do that to
make us feel bad about things we’d rather be doing but are afraid to be caught at.
It is way closer to the thing to imagine Lent as a sobering dose of reality. When a diver has
spent a certain length of time at great depths, on returning to the surface he will suffer
decompression sickness, perhaps fatally, unless he remains in a chamber where he is slowly and
carefully returned to the normal state of our atmosphere. In a somewhat similar way, for us to
return to a normally healthy relation with God, each other and ourselves, we must spend
significant time in reflection, prayer and self-discipline. We do this to overcome the effects of
the narcissism our naughty world considers “normal” and “reality,” which is actually anything
but.
So, try this Lent to find more time for the odd by-ways of the Spirit, the whispers of Christ, the
still small voices that call us out of ourselves. Break old habits that focus you more on your
appetites and desires, and build new ones that lift you to something higher.
In fact, less focus on ourselves makes our self stronger. Less is truly more. Prayer and even
fasting make our lives richer and more full. It’s a paradox, a mystery. Most interesting things,
like love, are.
In Christ,
Frank Fuller+
Thank God it’s almost Lent!
I mean, another few days of the welcome St. Mark’s people have been showering on the Fullers
and I’d be stone cold dead. Don’t get me wrong—we love being fed for a month better than any
doctor I’ve ever known would countenance for a single day; we adore partying and visiting; we
revel in your kind and generous reception. But the moment is reached, and that none too soon
for my cholesterol count, when we must put aside the gaudy caviar and tenderloin times and
settle down to the salad and Metamucil of normal life together.
Which, in truth, Lent is really about. It’s a mistake to think Lent is just about giving up
chocolate or whatever else is our favorite indulgence. I guess we mostly think we do that to
make us feel bad about things we’d rather be doing but are afraid to be caught at.
It is way closer to the thing to imagine Lent as a sobering dose of reality. When a diver has
spent a certain length of time at great depths, on returning to the surface he will suffer
decompression sickness, perhaps fatally, unless he remains in a chamber where he is slowly and
carefully returned to the normal state of our atmosphere. In a somewhat similar way, for us to
return to a normally healthy relation with God, each other and ourselves, we must spend
significant time in reflection, prayer and self-discipline. We do this to overcome the effects of
the narcissism our naughty world considers “normal” and “reality,” which is actually anything
but.
So, try this Lent to find more time for the odd by-ways of the Spirit, the whispers of Christ, the
still small voices that call us out of ourselves. Break old habits that focus you more on your
appetites and desires, and build new ones that lift you to something higher.
In fact, less focus on ourselves makes our self stronger. Less is truly more. Prayer and even
fasting make our lives richer and more full. It’s a paradox, a mystery. Most interesting things,
like love, are.
In Christ,
Frank Fuller+
Rectitudes~~~
Thoughts for February, 2008
Thoughts for February, 2008
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