There are many things one can "give up" during the season of Lent, the 40 days, excluding Sundays, preceding Easter. One should make a resolution only after prayerful consideration, not on the morn of Ash Wednesday in desperation. I considered giving up something frivolous and time-consuming, so I went with it. And I have stuck to it without a backward glance. But if I don't really miss it, is it really a sacrifice?
Had I chosen to give up some food item, you can bet I'd have broken my resolution by now with flying colors. Had I chosen to give up some wrong thinking, I would have already thought those bad thoughts already.
I was intrigued and moved by the second verse of the recessional hymn we sang yesterday:
In haunts of wretchedness and need, on shadowed thresholds dark with fears
from paths where hide the lures of greed, we catch the vision of thy tears.
It seems that Jesus suffers our sorrows as well. That is comforting.
It also makes participating in wretchedness a lot less alluring knowing that Jesus is watching. Some of my wretched behaviors and thoughts include selfishness, pride, envy and frustration. And some of those behaviors can bring me to tears as well. Perhaps I should have considered giving up those things, not only for Lent, but for all time.
I will begin to consider that my Lenten resolution of 2010.
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