Lenten Discipline

Taking on a Lenten discipline is something I preach about every year. I write about it in the newsletter and in our special mailing for Lent. I provide materials meant to support such disciplines. Yet I am terrible at maintaining such a discipline myself. Oh, from time to time I manage something; in 2003, along with several of my seminary classmates I gave up sweets, especially chocolate. In 2007 I finished my transition to becoming a vegetarian by giving up eating chicken (and didn't resume at the end of Lent), and in 2008 I gave up Diet Coke. But last year my Lenten discipline--which I actually spent more time thinking through than usual--was a spectacular FAIL. Half way through Lent I publicly acknowledged that it just wasn't going to happen. And given my stress level last year, that may have been the healthiest choice.

Nonetheless, I feel a little hypocritical about the whole thing, and so this year I resolved to do better. Only then Ash Wednesday came and I was still dithering about what to do. SO when my seminary friend Caffeinated Priest listed a set of spiritual exercises, one for each day of Lent, it seemed like a wonderful idea to take them on myself.

I like these exercises because they are thoughtful and intentional, and they cover a whole gamut of behaviors and practices. Many of them would make excellent practices to adopt regularly. Each of them requires thought. And mostly they don't focus on giving up things.

Intellectually I know that Lenten disiciplines aren't just about giving up something. And if you give up something it should be because it's a healthy choice to make, or because doing so makes your life better or allows you time to spend on other things more important. Not to prove that you can--to yourself or to others--which is how it often ends up feeling, at least to me, and that is just not the point. So this year, I'm not giving anything up for the entirety of Lent. But even though I've gotten a late start (and I won't make lame excuses for that), beginning today I'm going to follow these spiritual practices, and I'm going to try to blog each day on home I'm doing.

Today's exercise is: Read the beatitudes, Matthew 4:25-5:10.

Matthew is my favorite gospel, and the Sermon on the Mount is one of my favorite parts of that gospel, but funnily enough, the beatitudes, which are the opening verses of the Sermon on the Mount are NOT favorites--partly because people are sometimes too glib about them. So I've read today, but I think some rereading and reflection is in order.