Gratitude

    I find it interesting that one of the blessings and byproducts of Lent is a sense of gratitude.  I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising, but so often Lent is associated with purging, giving up things, contrition, and sacrifice.  It includes these things, but if we get bogged down in these, we miss the point of why we go through Lent in the first place.
    I’ve always loved the idea of “fasting,” from things.  For some it is food, another coffee, some soft drinks, some TV.  It is different for each because each of us have our own vices.  Most often fasting is associated with food, but the whole point of fasting is to be reminded of where our sustenance comes from.
    The tradition of the Church teaches that the point of fasting is partially to purify the body, but mainly it is that, when we feel the hunger pangs (or the urge to respond to the vice), we stop ourselves, make the choice not to respond, then turn to God for strength to work through the urge.  The whole point of the exercise is that we re-align ourselves with God and trust that God will give us the strength to turn and follow Christ, rather than our own desires.
    There are folks who don’t understand this, and like the person who simply gives an offering each week because “it’s what one does,” they simply enter the season of Lent saying, “I have to give up something.”  They don’t think of the deeper meaning and purpose of the fast.  This is why things like chocolate and soft drinks CAN (to clarify, I don’t mean to downplay anyone’s observation of the season) become a bit trivial.  Like anything, the giving up of something can become simply a thing to do, rather than a discipline of the Spirit; a discipline which is intended to create lifelong habits for more faithful living.
    Put another way, it’s a far cry for one to give up caffeine for 40 days to an alcoholic giving up alcohol for a lifetime.  Yes, both feel the urges and “hunger pangs,” and both might resist, maybe even ask for God’s help, but one is simply a temporary state, while the other faces the reality of life.  To fast is to do far more than just give something up, it is to give ourselves up...all of our selves...to God’s care.
    But to go back to the first sentence of this writing, the interesting and wonderful byproduct of this kind of living is a sense of gratitude for God’s gifts to us.  To live by Lenten disciplines and truly seek God’s help in the midst of the urge, is to recognize that all things come from God and God helps us in all things.  It is to name where our strength and life comes, then turn toward that source.  It is to align ourselves with the one who loves us, and when we do this we naturally feel gratitude, because in the midst of our asking God comes and reveals His love and hope for us.
   
    We are headed toward the cross of Christ, and at the end of this season of Lent we will find ourselves together on Thursday night sharing in a meal.  On Maundy Thursday we recount the last meal Christ had with His disciples just before He was taken away to be placed on trial, beaten, and killed.
    We read accounts of this Last Supper in the Gospels, as well as in a few of St. Paul’s letters, and they each recount how Jesus took the things of life, bread and wine...a Passover meal...and He transformed them into something Holy.  In preparation for the days ahead, for Him and His disciples, He aligned Himself with the One who would be there with them through it all.  He lifted the bread and said, “This is my body, broken for you...This is the blood of the New Covenant shed for you and for all.  Do this in remembrance of me.”
    In our tradition we call this the “Eucharist,” which means “Thanksgiving.”  It is called the Great Thanksgiving, for despite the fact that this was the LAST supper, despite it symbolized the preparation for the sacrifice of Jesus the Passover Lamb, all very depressing and astounding things, underlying it all is genuine gratitude.
    Grateful for God’s providence, Jesus reveals His trust in God being with Him.  So much so that He finds a way to align his followers with Him and the Father, so they’d be faithful and trust in the only One who could give them strength.  Jesus finds a way to show them how to enter life fully, journey into the darkness, and follow God, even if it led to darkness and death.
    I’ll admit, Jesus soon went to the Garden and tried to get out of it.  Who wouldn’t have?  But even then, He turned to God, trusted and followed.  He gave up everything, so God’s will would be done.  For that WE are grateful.

    I have to admit, I didn’t choose anything to “give up” this year for Lent, except to try and be more willing to follow.  It’s been a rough Lent simply because life’s realities have seemed to come to the fore far more often than in a normal cycle.  At times I’ve gotten a bit frazzled and my first response was to try and control what I could and just weather the storm.  It wasn’t until I fasted from myself, my desires, my frustrations, and my will, listened to my heart and gave it up to God, literally praying, “Uncle!  I give,” that God then brought peace, gratitude, faith, strength, and hope, even in the midst of difficult days.
    The result has been thankfulness.  Grateful to be reminded that I can’t and don’t need to be in control. Grateful to know that you can’t and don’t need to be in control.  Instead, the one thing we know is that God does have control ultimately, and God takes all that life throws at us and makes a way for wholeness to come.
    For that, I am thankful.

What are you holding on to?  What’s bogging you down?  For what are you most thankful?