On Lent

The Christian season of Lent is meant to be a time of preparation before Easter, in a similar way that Advent is a season of preparation before Christmas. I don’t know if it is just where I have been for the last several years, serving as a pastor in North Alabama, but I have witnessed, even in the Church, a sense that we should just rush forward and “get to it,” with each of these major Christian holy days. Last year, the Christmas rush began on November 1, when stores took down their Halloween paraphernalia and replaced it with Christmas junk. Soon the questions started coming, “When are we going to sing Christmas songs?” and I answered, “We’ll sing them when Christmas gets here.” Sadly, once we got to Christmas, everyone was done with it. When we gathered for a service of Lessons and Carols on the Sunday after Christmas everyone seemed exhausted and uninterested in celebrating.

In Lent we’re meant to focus on the things that are keeping each of us from developing a closer relationship with God, and work to remove them. We are meant to ask the question, “What is standing between me and God? What have I allowed to become a priority that really isn’t meant to be a priority? And, how can God help me fix this?”

For me this is simple… I am a pleaser! I like to be liked, and I don’t like to hurt other peoples’ feelings even if what I have said to them is appropriate. Having integrity requires a willingness to say what people do not necessarily want to hear, with compassion. And that is the challenge I have for this Lent, to say what needs to be said, not roughly or to hurt, but to say what needs to be said whether it is popular or not. I hope God gives me wisdom and courage for this task! I am deliberately spending more time in prayer this Lent to seek God's guidance here.

Racing?

Yesterday I took part in my first bicycle race, a 40-mile ride consisting of four loops around a ten-mile circuit at Camp Sumatanga in Gallant, AL. I read about the race the night before, and even though I hadn’t ridden my bike much over the last few weeks because of the cold and wet, I thought it might be fun to go give it a shot. I had to rush to get to Sumatanga in time for the start because I had a couple of meetings after worship at Church. I made it in time to get registered and threw on my clothes and had a chance to “warm up” by riding about a quarter of a mile before it was time to get started. Wearing my heart rate monitor, I looked down and realized that my heart was racing as I prepared for the start. No matter what I tried to do I couldn’t get it to slow down and relax. Finally, the USA cycling official gave us a go, and we took off, and I mean, we really took off! My heart pounded and my lungs began to burn as we tore down the opening stretch of the course up over 20 miles per hour, and closed in on 30. I looked down at my heart rate monitor to see my heart rate soar higher and higher. I heard a woman behind me exclaim, “Good grief,” as she quit pedaling and turned around to head back to the start. I thought to myself, “this is ridiculous, I could die here!” After what seemed like a lifetime, but turned out to be only 1.1 miles, I slowed down and settled in for what would turn out to be a nice training ride, realizing I have work to do before I do any more racing.

I finished the race/ride… dead last, and sufficiently humbled. My lungs are still mad at me today, and the 2600 calories I burned on my ride leave me a little sluggish, but somehow crazily tempted to do it all again once I get into better shape.