And I'm not just talking about the 8 year olds who are dressed like street walkers and the 11 year olds putting on pouty faces and over-the-shoulder glances for their Facebook profile pictures. Or the boys who walk around with their underwear hanging out of their pants, though certainly I could do without any of those things.
I'm thinking about couples who "work out" their differences on competing Facebook posts. It is SO destructive to fight in public like that, even if you're just sending non-directed complaints into the web-o-sphere. Our mothers used to talk about "not airing your dirty laundry in public." Today we not only air it, we auction it off to the highest bidder.
I'm thinking about the hubris (self-destructive pride) that means we undervalue the pain of others and overemphasize our own. As frightening and as wrong as we may feel the attacks on unions in Wisconsin may be it is NOT the equivalent of protestors being strafed by aircraft in Libya. As restrictive and perhaps unfair as the regulations for NFL players may be they CERTAINLY are not the modern equivalent to slavery -- not in a business where you can make half a million dollars a year without ever playing a single game as a rookie second- or third-string player.
Nobody wants to be humiliated. Nobody. And humiliation is not the same thing as humility, which is really about an honest and truthful evaluation of both our weaknesses and our strengths, our gifts and our challenges. Modesty is about recognizing that the universe does not resolve around us and that some problems are un-resolvable and some may require a little effort and responsibility on our part to resolve. It is about admitting that we are not perfect and we can't expect anyone else to be perfect. It's about recognizing that our solutions might have been better, our complaints might not be as valid (or of as high a priority) as we assume, and that, sometimes that's just the way life is and it's okay.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Lenten Disciplines
Some of you may not be able to make it to a service on Ash Wednesday (March 9) to mark the beginning of Lent. But there are some things you can do on your own at home during this Lenten season. Rather than just doing something “good for you” like giving up smoking or candy (not that there’s anything wrong with doing that!) consider a Lenten discipline that will help you connect body and soul, heart and mind.
The scriptures for Ash Wednesday are these: Isaiah 58:1-12, Psalm 51:1-17, 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.
Isaiah speaks about “fasting” (not eating) – this has been a religious practice for millennia, either not eating anything (taking only water and sometimes diluted fruit juices) or not eating at certain times (as devout Muslims do not eat from sunrise until sundown during Ramadan) or not eating certain foods (as Christians formerly gave up all meat and yeast products during Lent and Advent). But Isaiah points out that fasting may be more about what we choose to keep for ourselves than what we choose to “give up” for God. Read Isaiah. Then think about committing to one of these practices for Lent:
-Consider eating on a food stamp budget for a week. Find out what someone in your family circumstances (number of children, partner, etc.) would receive on food stamps and shop for your meals with that amount only.
-Consider fasting your budget. Most of us live on pretty tight budgets, yet if we’re honest we can find some things that are not truly essential. Kay Lynn Northcutt reminds us that Lent is a time to reflect on what is most essential in our lives. [1] This is going to be my fast this Lent – that I will not buy anything that is not essential. [Please note: what is essential to me may not be essential to you and vice versa. It’s all about the discernment!]
-Consider fasting in your entertainment. Perhaps you want to stop watching tv in order to spend more time in relationships, reading, creative activity (I did this once. It was the hardest thing I ever did for Lent…and my kids caught me cheating, which was embarrassing). Or perhaps you want to fast from shows that are based in violence or that use “put down” as a form of humor.
-Consider doing something creative – read the scripture passages for each day of Lent (there are a number of lists/assigned readings available, congregations/parishes often make them available, or you can find daily readings online) and react to it, reflect on it in a non-verbal way. Keep a notebook with sketches or doodles that the passage calls up for you, make a quilt or a collage or a drawing that reflects your Lenten journey. Share them with someone.
Let this Lent be a time when you break one of the ties that keeps you imprisoned, and let your “fasting” be a dying to something that keeps you from abundant life.
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