Inspired

Lent is not my favorite liturgical season.  Something happened yesterday that inspired me, however, and gave me a fresh perspective.  My 19 year old son was home from college on Spring Break and we had lunch with a neighborhood friend of his.  During the course of the meal, my son asked him, "so what did you give up for Lent?"  The friend replied, "sleeping in my bed."  During this Lent, he sleeps on the floor.  I had never heard that one before and admittedly thought it was a little unusual.  The funny thing about it, however, is that I kept thinking about it.  There was something appealing about it that I could not quite put my finger on. 

The next day I asked my son what he thought about it.  He said the most perceptive thing I have heard in awhile:  "Most people give up something for Lent that is not good for them anyway.  Things like caffeiene, alcohol, smoking, sweets, eating between meals, etc.  Those are things we should not do in the first place, arguably, and so the thing that is being given up, while a sacrifice, is also a help to physical health.  But what my friend gave up is of no help whatsoever to him physically.  The benefit he gets is a purely spiritual one."

As I reflect on this, it seems to me that such a sacrifice is "better" in the sense that it is harder.  It is one thing to stop doing something because it will benefit you physically.  It is another thing altogether to find something to sacrifice where the benefit is purely for the love of God, that is to say, "entirely spiritual."  It is a way of denying the flesh in an even greater way and brings to mind the words of Christ in John 6:63: "It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail." 

Something to ponder.  Happy Lent.