More Light, Not Less Dark!

Often, we think about Lent as a time for giving up something...no coffee, no beer, no ice cream, or whatever.  And there's not question that denying one's self something can have a good effect on a person's spiritual life.  But, it makes me wonder if we miss the point when our Lenten question becomes "Whatcha gonna give up?"

Lent is fundamentally a time of preparation...back in the early-church day, it was when converted Christians prepared for baptism at Easter.  It's a time for spiritual focus, for some introspection, some "stock-taking" of one's life, spiritually and otherwise.  So, might we use that introspection as an opportunity not simply for denial of something peripheral in one's life, but to add or develop something more positive and lasting?

CS Lewis talks about evil as the absence of the goodness of God, as opposed to it being some opposite equal force.  As darkness is the absence of light and not its own entity, so evil is the absence of good.  Maybe this is stretching his idea a bit far, but doesn't it seem that making a positive change in your life or mine is like adding light?  If that image works, then it would seem that adding light is much more spiritually beneficial than "giving up" darkness, especially if the darkness is something as mundane as your morning coffee, or television on Tuesdays.

It might be as simple as beginning a new good habit instead of putting a not-so-good one on the shelf for six weeks.  Maybe it's taking a walk after work each night, writing notes to loved ones, or having intentional conversations with your spouse, parents, or kids.  I have to believe there's more potential for healthy spirituality in any of those, or a dozen others, that we'll ever get from giving up caffeine.

The kind of self-denial about which Jesus speaks in the gospels is not trivial; it is a radical reordering of one's life, and it is paired with "taking up one's cross" to follow Jesus.  To follow Christ is far more about walking in the light than it is creating a list of behaviors to abandon.  Which means it is focused letting the light of Jesus shine from your life into the life of others!

So...maybe the question for Lent this year is "What will you add into your life to let the light of Christ shine in and through you?