Detail of Bruegel the Elder’s “Fight between Carnival and Lent”
A key to spiritual growth is a sense of emptiness. Lent is a season observed by Christians during which abstaining from food and other worldly goods brings awareness of our spiritual needs. Fasting and mindfulness are spiritual traditions across many religious and secular traditions. In the Christian tradition, Lent allows us to make room for God by giving up material things and learning something about our needs and desires. As my pastor pointed out in an introductory guide to fasting for Lent, it is not a way to kickstart a diet, overcome addiction or deal with bad habits. Instead, it is an opportunity to seek God in the emptiness created by feeling it in a way that is real to your body and mind.
That corporal realness is what the sacraments are all about: physical reminders of spiritual matters. A core tenet of Lutheran and other Christian theology is that God assumed a physical body in the form of Jesus Christ. He ate food, slept, sweat, bled and died. There is a tangible reality to the physical experience of the body. Lent is a time in which we can use that reality to create space for faith.
For Lent, I have chosen to give up my late-night anime sessions and limit my social media. I have chosen to practice a one-day fast each week. I have chosen to abstain from alcohol. I have also chosen to attend the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Feed, Ash Wednesday Service, Lenten Dinners and Midweek worship services through Lent. Though there is a place for sojourns in the wilderness, spiritual journeys are not made wholly alone.
lennyspruce 