Conversation Point

On Being Spiritual

How is Lent treating you? It's a long road to Jerusalem and Palm Sunday, almost three weeks by my calculation. A clergy friend of mine once remarked that Lent would be easier if it were only four weeks long, like Advent. She was right, of course, and mainly speaking from an administrative standpoint. It is easier to get congregational investment in shorter length programming because people's lives are over-stuffed with so much already. And, culturally, we don't like thinking about scaling back and focusing in on parts of our spirituality that deal with pain and suffering, our own or someone else's.

Lent has that reputation, encouraging us to peer under the tarps we have thrown over our shame and guilt. Exploring that less cultivated side of our beliefs rarely inspires enthusiasm or excitement, kind of like a rainy day off from school. What can you do with it that doesn't feel like work? Cleaning our rooms, doing homework ahead of time or helping our parents out with some chores should not fill up precious free time. Lent fees like open territory that has been given to us, but using it well feels like entirely too much work.

Lots of people think living a faithful life anytime of the year is not supposed to be hard. If we think that God exists, cares for us and won't ever leave us, what's all the rest of this religious behavior supposed to be about? That seems to be the defining point for a number of people who consider themselves to be spiritual, but don't feel they need religious structures in order to connect with God. God being everywhere, they can connect with God anywhere. That makes sense to me. What doesn't is the caveat that they practice their own form of spirituality, but can't quite give any examples of how they do that. Hmmm. I would guess not so much. Sounds more lazy than personally creative or faithful to me.

Just as we all know life is difficult, faith is work. Let me say that again: faith is work. My dad liked to say that work wasn't a four letter word, but somehow easy is a strong selling point for everything from preparing meals to preparing for a career. If something is difficult, challenging or takes effort we shy away from it. Hence the idea to skip through Lent on an Ash Wednesday prayer and a Palm Sunday hosannah. All that messy, gut-wrenching stuff in between isn't particularly pretty or fun. Those hard questions of what tempts us away from God and how we end up serving so many false gods get by passed or completely ignored because examining our lives too closely means we likely will be forced to make some adjustments to realign our faith with our actions. A bit of a bother, eh?

A bother, perhaps, but an important one. Clearing out our closets now and again is a bother, but one with benefits. It's satisfying to find your way clear of old clothes, wrinkled Christmas wrapping and magazines from decades ago that you no longer need or use. Putting back only what has a purpose in your life leaves an organized, clean space in which you can locate items quickly and easily. The sorting process doesn't take so long if you do it regularly. But leave a closet to it's own devices for a few years and you have some serious work in front of you.

Worshipping the false god of impatience, for example, can fill up a spiritual closet inside of us with anger, bitterness and resentment until it is packed to overflowing. Keeping the door shut on that mess can become a full time job. It's tempting to just leave it alone for as long as we can. But every time we curse out a driver who doesn't move fast enough for us, or tap our foot at the person fumbling for change ahead of us in line at the grocery store, or tell our own children to hurry up when they are going as fast as they can, we place ourselves for worship at the altar of the god of impatience and say a prayer that adds another burden to that closet inside of us. False gods abound wherever ill behavior makes us believe we matter more than the people around us.

Lent is the time to consider, to examine what tempts us to do other than what we know will strengthen and support our faith. Lent is the time to bring our focus to the false gods we have closeted inside ourselves, clear out the space they have occupied in us and welcome our one true God back to our freshly-cleaned spiritual spaces. Lent is the time to do some spring cleaning in our souls. It may not be glamorous, but it feels really good when we are done.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 6:20 PM