By Ed Thompson
I don’t think I ever heard about the season of Lent when I was growing up. Holy Week, sure, we celebrated that. Palm Sunday was a big deal as was Maundy Thursday, which was one of the four times during the year that we had communion. Good Friday – well, we knew about it but didn’t really make a big deal about it. Easter was a big day, though, with a packed sanctuary and new clothes plus an Easter basket full of chocolate. I only really remember going to one Easter Sunrise Service when I was little. Whether my church didn’t have them or my parents didn’t want to get up that early, I’m not sure.
It was while I was at college that I remember learning about Lent. We were encouraged to give things up for those 40 days, so one year, I gave up eating chicken; another year, I forsook Oreos or maybe all cookies. That was too hard on me, though. It may have been a good spiritual discipline, but I never did that again. One year, our college youth group did a fast from Maundy Thursday through Easter. We broke the fast by celebrating communion, which is one of my favorite communion memories.
While I was serving as a pastor, we always bought Lenten devotional booklets for the members of the church. It was probably while I was in seminary that we were impressed that it was better to take on additional devotional practices instead of giving something up for Lent. That was seen as “too Catholic,” whatever that means. So I began gathering different devotional booklets throughout the year, and then in early February, let the session choose which one they wanted the congregation to use.
My Lenten experiences while serving as a General Presbyter, both here in West Virginia and in Kansas, have been much more hit-or-miss. I’m almost always in a different church each week, so there’s no continuity. I miss that. Most years, it leaves me feeling bereft.
This year has been even worse so far, as we were on the road to Massachusetts to celebrate my granddaughter’s third birthday, which fell on Ash Wednesday, as well as the road back home on the first Sunday of Lent. I watched a Zoom service later that afternoon, and while it was good and actually very creative, I still find myself floundering. I decided that I will try to do two things for Lent this year.
One, I will try to ask at least one powerful question each day. How are you doing? What do you want to eat? What do you think? Those are all fine questions, and depending on the situation, may be perfectly appropriate. Powerful questions, though, dig deeper than that. They get beyond what we see on the surface and make people reflect before they answer. They encourage people to consider other options and hopefully will encourage them to expand what they see as being possible. What coaching training I’ve done has emphasized asking powerful questions. It’s not only a good skill for a coach, it also seems like it can be a gift that I can offer the people I meet during the day. I’ll just need to remember to do that after I finish this article.
The other thing I’m going to try to do this Lent is to notice where I see God at work each day. That’s definitely going to be easier to do, but it’s also something that may be easy to forget. One of the practices that I’ve adopted over the past few years is a variation of the Bullet Journal. I have a notebook that I use to make a list of the important things I want to do each day. At night I mark off what I’ve accomplished as well as the unexpected highlights of the day before making a list for the day ahead. It should be easy to reflect on where I’ve seen God at work that day. The thing is I’ve still got to remember to do it.
How did you learn about Lent? What have been some of your best – or worst – experiences with this season? What are you giving up or taking on for Lent this year? I hope these 40 days will be a time of blessing for you and for others. May they prepare you to celebrate the Resurrection in a powerful way.