GUM!

“Hey J.T.!! What are you giving up for Lent?!”

The boy yelled from the back of the line in hockey skills practice. 

“Gum!” J.T. yelled back from the front of the line.

“Me too!”

“My brother gave up his goalie skills for Lent,” another boy told my Zachary as this yelling-long-distance conversation concluded.

Zach told me about this conversation as we were loading up in the truck after hockey practice. We have talked some about Lent and about how I’m trying to give up FaceBook. The kids have been good at reminding me about my commitment…especially if they catch me on FB during the day. Zach was surprised to hear his hockey buddies discussing Lent, and what they had given up, and it of course sparked my thinking on what Lent could mean to them. I haven’t pushed them to give anything up, though, and I think it is mainly because I’m still getting my thinking straight.

There is something about doing our lives out loud in front of our kids. Letting them see us working through the process of faith, even when we are just making attempts at something new.  Along those lines, I spent some time looking at articles about how to practice Lent as a family. I found some great ideas.

Most of the best ideas are simple ones. Simple things that are used to draw our attention to a specific theme….to preparing for Easter and to meditating on Jesus.

Here are a few ideas, and I’ll list some links at the end:

* Fill a jar with names of family members and friends. Pull a person’s name out every day and pray for them. This could be done at dinner time, or the kids could even pick out a name every morning and pray for that person on their own throughout the day.

* Leave the Bible out on a coffee table as a reminder of doing Lenten readings. This should go beyond just Lent…it made me think about how little the kids see me reading the Bible. I usually read when they are asleep or off to school and things are quiet. I want to be more in their midst with this, though…and I like this idea of having a place where the Bible stays out and open to what we’re reading

* Prepare some simple meals, like soup, and talk about how many people go without food. Spend some time talking about how those people can be helped. If your kids are  old enough see about volunteering at a soup kitchen, or find some other way to reach out. Talk about people and ministries who are helping the poor and spend some time praying for these people as you eat the meal.

* I really like this idea….making an “Alleluia” banner (just whatever you like…on a big piece of paper and letting the kids decorate the banner with colors. Just has to say “Alleluia”) and then burying it until Easter. How cool and simple is that?! I know we’re well into Lent, but I think we’re going to do this…

* Oh, and this is very cool: spending Holy Week with just candle light. I’m thinking as well of no electrical *toys* for that week. Could we endure a week of that in this house of gamers?! We’ll see…but the concept on spending the week in candle light is to emphasize that the world is in darkness without Christ. Then, of course on Easter we are back to light. Love this idea.

One of the articles I read made a really good point….don’t worry too much and just live out your Lent practices in front of your kids. They’ll get it. Sometimes we make things more difficult than they have to be. Still….sometimes our kids need a visual, visceral something that helps them understand what this is all about. If nothing else thy get that this is different than other times in the year. They get that we are trying to pay attention.

I don’t know about you, but much of this Lent is preparing my heart for the next Lent. I am spending more time thinking about Jesus’ journey in the wilderness and His journey to the cross, but I am also thinking about what will happen next year. Especially with homeschooling…I think there are some really great possibilities for bringing hte kids into this process and laying a foundation for them of understanding the Gospel.  I’m excited about this.

Okay…as promised, here are some links. Each link has lots of other links, so you can find your way to lots of great articles and lots of great ideas on Lent and the family…

http://homeschoolblogger.com/momco3/784421/

http://voices.yahoo.com/15-family-activities-enrich-2805219.html?cat=34

http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com/2009/02/lenten-activities-for-kids.html

http://ordinarysplendor.blogspot.com/2010/02/decorating-for-home-for-lent.html

Try Doing Something For Lent Instead of Giving Up…

So, the other concept of Lent that I have seen around the web these days is to take up doing something different during this season.

Some of the suggestions are fairly simple, and some are more challenging. The idea is that as Jesus went into the wilderness for the time of temptation, and as we contemplate His journey on to the cross, we should be moved to act for justice and for others.

We should. That is a valid aspect to Lent, I think.  So, I found some links that are pretty helpful.  The first one is from the UK. (Most of these are from varying years). I found this yesterday when I was thinking on Lent and Love…and I googled Lent Love.

I really like this. There are ideas here that work for the whole family, for individuals or for churches. There are great ideas and resources for helping the kids be involved in Lent. I’m a little too late to really get this going for this year, but am marking it for next year…there are still some things that are worth maybe thinking on for this year. Check it out:  Live Lent

This site has, well 101 practical fasting ideas for lent...Some of the ideas are for giving things up, but some are for doing different things during Lent. Worth reading through.

This next one is from the National Catholic Register. This one is really interesting for those who are involved in the arts or are moved by movies. This is about Lenten Films.

Along the lines of the last link, here’s a link to NoiseTrade and a project of Lenten Hymns. You can get them for as little as $1.
Now, along the lines of being moved to justice during Lent, the next two links I think are pretty helpful. Again, these might be things to set you up for next year, but still some things we can do for this year.

First, World Vision. They have some great things to look through and give you ideas for how to pursue Jesus and justice in this Lent.

Second, a group called Steps of Justice. This is a group that came from folks who were with YWAM. They wanted to be able to move toward more justice for the groups they became aware of through YWAM.They have a section on the website where you can post responses of the steps you are taking in your Lent journey. And they have a prayer guide…it’s a 30 day guide, so could be used any time. Maybe something for next year?

With that, I’m off to build our red neck tornado shelter. We only have one little bathroom downstairs, so it’s to tight now to get all 4 kiddos, dog and myself into the “shelter”. Dragging down a few mattresses to extend things today. Pretty good chance of tornados in our area…prayers always appreciated as these stir fear and can of course be deadly.  Maybe I’ll post pictures of the shelter tomorrow

Lent and Love.

Lent and love…not concepts that we often think of together, but they’ve been coming together more closely for me lately. Maybe it is simply that I am a little more aware during this Lenten season and the connection seems true and right.

The other day I was holding Madeleine and she was giggling and laughing, and I would laugh….and she would laugh in response. Her eyes lit up and she laughed with them as well as her little chortling laugh-out-loud delight. It is impossible to convey the emotions of parents in these moments. There was delight that welled up within me just in seeing her delight.

There is love that is awakened in us as parents that is unlike anything else. And it is returned in our infants especially. They delight in us.

Anna, one of my favorite bloggers, wrote about her experience as a new mom and this awareness. I really liked this:

They say that becoming a parent changes everything, but what I think those people missed when they said that was the fact that being a parent changes you profoundly. It doesn’t just shake up your life (it does) or cause you realize that sleep is over-rated (it’s not, but you really can function on far less than you think!), but if you listen to your baby, they will explain love to you in ways that you haven’t known since you were a baby.

She’s right. It disarms you. Even if you are not a parent…if you are around little ones you can see that they love unabashedly and without any fear. It is wonderful.

What does this have to do with Lent? Well, it has to do with what we are to be thinking on.

Jesus went to the desert to face temptations and to be tested as He entered His ministry. He already knew He was taking the first steps to the cross. He knew where the road was going to lead and He knew what was required of Him to bring about our salvation.

But He loved us.

Unabashedly and without fear and without insecurity and without all the baggage we bring.

I know that our attempts at Lenten fasting may seem silly. Some seem sober and respectable. Still…it is just us, attempting to do something to awaken our spiritual eyes to look differently at the way we live and who we are. That is all on our side…we’re trying to do something. And that smacks against what this journey of Jesus is all about….His grace for us.

So, today I’m dwelling on this meeting of Lent and Love. I have already said that I do not think giving up anything will impress God and shouldn’t be done with that intent. But, I do think that He delights in our desire to please Him and to know Him.

Facebook. Thin Mint cookies. TV. Soda. Luxuries. Meat.

Giggle. Laugh. Bat your eyes. Respond to your Father with delight and desire to engage and know. And I believe He delights in us.

“1 The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17

Because Lent is about preparing ourselves to experience Good Friday and Easter…about thinking on Jesus’ journey in the wilderness…it is sober. I don’t want to make it less than what it should be. Still, I think at it’s core it is about love.   Huffington Post is doing a series on Lent, and this quotation from one of the first articles was part of this thinking for me:

“Lent is not 40 days of misery to be forgotten with the first sip of that illicit latte. It’s our preparation for the Resurrection; our chance to grow spiritually before we once again proclaim that the love of Christ overcame even death.”

Don’t be distracted by the details and miss the whole picture. Delight in God in this season. Even in sobriety and with sacrifice…delight that it is the love of Christ that overcame death. For God so loved the world….

The Silly Practice of Fasting from Facebook…

In the life of Christian discipleship, we are formed less by grand spiritual gestures—such as the occasional three-week silent starvation-fast retreat—and more by the small choices we make daily to embrace the contours of the Jesus-patterned life.

 

So maybe forsaking chocolate for forty days won’t change the world.  It can, though, change me.  It can change you.  Each time we sacrifice in order to identify with Christ, or move in synch with Jesus into the world even though we feel entirely incompetent doing it, or when we embrace a holy practice for the sake of the kingdom, we are transformed a teeny bit more into his likeness.

I didn’t write anything yesterday…I have something brewing in my mind, but it has not come together yet, so I’m waiting. In the meantime, I found  some more gems of articles about Lent. It is somewhat staggering how many articles are out there. The nuber of us writing about our journeys. The number of people writing, period…that is rather staggering.

The quotation above is from Margot Starbuck and the rest of her article is worth reading. I like the little bit above though. I know that it sounds silly to friends who are not Christians that we are giving up FaceBook or chocolate or soda for Lent. Maybe it is a little bit silly.  Especially when we look at what Lent is about…what we are to be contemplating during these forty days.

Jesus being taken into the desert to be tempted.

Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and nights he was tested by the Devil.  (Luke 4:1 from The Message)

He was full of the Holy Spirit.  He didn’t give up soda. He didn’t give up chocolate. He didn’t give up luxuries or frivolity. He did not play at this.

He was led by the same Spirit that filled Him into the wild. To face temptations and to be tested.  This was not a game.  This time in the desert that the Church has through the years come to think on in this time leading up to Holy Week, this spiritual sobriety, leads us to be prepared to remember Good Friday.  We are preparing our hearts, not playing at fasting.

I have to be honest, looking full-on at Jesus as He is tempted and ultimately as He comes to the Cross, is difficult. It is easier to think about how spiritual it is to give up Facebook or chocolate.  It is humbling to think on all of this because it involves me.

We’ve all thought about Jesus thinking of us on the Cross. We’ve been encouraged to do so. It’s true, though. That’s what we believe.  He knew.

He knew me. He knows me.

This is not frivolous.  Even if it is simple and we giggle some, maybe we are able to take offer this simple act of sacrifice so that we can encounter the Living God. It can be slightly frightening. Encountering the Living God.

We have more time. Lent is still settling into our souls. The simple things we have set in place to train ourselves to think on Him…they are settling in. Maybe we’ve faltered a little and wondered if it was silly to attempt this. It’s not. It’s serious business…contemplating the temptations of Jesus and the journey to the Cross (ahhh…..but, Easter.).

Whatever it is that you felt led to give up…stick with it, even if it is little or seems silly. Has it made you think more about Jesus? Has it caused you to pause. Have you filled the absence with a space for the Spirit to lead you? There’s still time….preparing our hearts for Holy Week. Making space this season to encounter the Living God.