My Prescription: Give up
Unhappiness for Lent!
I must admit, growing
up I didn’t know very much about the Ash Wednesday to Easter Lenten
season. The concept of giving up
something for Lent remains on the fringes of my awareness; that is, I sagely
acknowledge the observance but don’t invite the practice into my well-ordered
routine. I mean, after all, who would
willingly deny themselves a much-enjoyed delight such as sugar or TV for 40
days?
A powerful Ash
Wednesday service last week changed my mind.
I learned Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent in the Western
Christian calendar. According to the
canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the
desert, where he endured temptation by Satan.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the 40-day liturgical period of
prayer and fasting or abstinence and derives its name from the practice of
placing ashes on the foreheads as a reminder and celebration of human mortality,
and as a sign of mourning and repentance to God. The ashes used are typically gathered from
the burning of the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday.
Reflecting on this
experience, I also pondered the companion to Ash Wednesday: giving up something
for 40 days. A strange idea entered my
mind - what if we all gave up
unhappiness for Lent? Because, when it
comes right down to it, we are the ones in charge of our reactions and our
feelings. When I am disgusted with
others or disappointed with life, the main person who is unhappy is me!
Giving up
unhappiness might sound strange in a society where it seems we are directed
toward negativity or what’s wrong. For
example, a recent newspaper advice column offered this letter from a man who
signed his letter, Perfectly Miserable.
“Dear Amy, My wife is wonderful. She is
intelligent and thoughtful and kind.
There is only one thing that bothers me about her, and it is this: There is always one more thing that bothers
her about me.”
Don’t
we see that in our world? There seems to
always be one more thing that bothers us!
So here’s a prescription I recommend you
take for the next 40 days:
o
Instead of enumerating
all his faults, look for his successes.
o
Decide to cherish her
versus reflecting on how much she bugs you.
o
Opt out of the
gossip-around-the-water-cooler time; then remember how excited you were to have
this job, any job!
o
Love your body rather
than listing all its components which dissatisfy you.
o
Deliberately turn off
the TV and spend an evening with the family.
