First Sunday in Lent

Click on the two links below:

http://www.ucomics.com/pricklycity/2006/03/03/

http://www.ucomics.com/pricklycity/2006/03/04/

Look familiar? Have any relevance to Lent and God’s call?

I told you we go off message every now and then, or maybe not.

Several have already written saying that Lent is not supposed to be about Joy, and that we minimize the importance of the sacrifice. The discussion is healthy and important. I will start with a story of my own.

“What are you giving up for Lent.” Looking back on these words, it was a ridiculous question given that I was asking a man nicknamed “Razor” inside a Federal Prison where we both were living at the time. He not only had no idea what I was talking about; he also believed he had nothing to give up after all he was, “ in prison, Big Easy ( my prison moniker).” However, over dinner and my lame explanation of Lent, we all agreed to give something up. I gave up my daily can of Cran-Grape ( “Grape Pop” was the name everyone else used.), Razor gave up Cake (his daily desert), and without much thought around the table “Breeze” gave up cookies, “Big Rick” sacrificed his second bowl of daily oatmeal, and Ray agreed to reduce his caffeine intake of eight cups of coffee a day. Word passed quickly as it does in such close quarters and many others decided to do “Big Easy’s Lent thing.” Thanks to the prison chaplain explaining to the Warden that Lent was not some precursor to a “Hunger Strike,” we continued our individual disciplines through the season. We were certainly not perfect in our disciplines, but we kidded each other when one would get caught sneaking a cookie or soda and supported each other to get back on the discipline when the allure of chocolate cake overwhelmed someone. Come Good Friday’s evening meal we all celebrated drinking Pop, eating cookies and cake, etc. ( I will save for another day the discussion about when Lent ends.)

Looking back on it I contemplate, “what was Lent’s sacrificial appeal to a group of men who were in prison who had no freedom, no material goods except prison issue, and, for many, no family left and little hope for the future.”

I think it may be found in their individual subconscious realization that despite their condition they still had something that brought them pleasure, no matter how small, and they also felt there was something special about giving up that pleasure for a brief time to honor God. And we learned
that no matter what the exceptionally difficult situation is, there is still an opportunity to grow spiritually.

- Webb Hubbell

First Saturday in Lent

I am writing this on my laptop sitting in my backyard drinking a beer and listening to Sam Cooke on my Ipod after a very difficult week at work.

Yesterday I found out that I was passed over for a promotion at work in favor of someone else. Needless to say I came home yesterday in a mood similar to what Winston Churchill used to describe as "the black dog." I felt lost, annoyed, disrespected, jealous, and most of all, I felt very alone.

Then an amazing thing happened. I met my wife for dinner, and she thought no less of me because I wasn't the new manager of financial systems. And I picked up my sons and all they seemed to care about was which book we would read together tonight, they had no interest in the decisions that our accounting director is making. Their love for me was, and remains, unconditional. And in that sense, they are like God. In this way the unconditional love of a wife, or a son, or a parent is the true manifestation of heaven on earth.

My wife thinks that I am being sent a message. That God has something else in mind for me and it doesn't involve Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. I'm starting to believe she may be right. Dad said yesterday "Too often we focus too much on the sacrifice part. By gritting our teeth and becoming as strong as we can be, we don‚t let something be done for us that is more wonderful still"

Sitting outside on a Friday afternoon listening to the birds and enjoying respite from the week, I find myself mediating on what God's call to me might be and I think I am starting to hear what Sam Cooke is singing when he says,

"There have been times that I thought I couldn't last for long But now I think I'm able to carry on It's been a long time, but I know A change is gonna come, oh yes it will"

- Walter

Friday After Ash Wednesday

As Lent begins God speaks to us and we strain to hear him. He speaks to us, and if lucky we begin to hear, ever so faintly, his call. The light of his call is dim, like the “first trace of dawn on the rim of the night.” At this moment, we certainly cannot be certain of what we hear and see because it is as alive and changing as we are alive and changing.

We must be careful not to fall into the temptation to say Lent is about “getting my life in control.” Too often we focus too much on the sacrifice part. By gritting our teeth and becoming as strong as we can be, we don’t let something be done for us that is more wonderful still. Sometimes, what will make “ all is alright” is something that can be had only as a gift. Buechner reminds us that, “...the one thing a clenched fist cannot do... is accept a helping hand.”

Lent is a time through our prayers, our sacrifices, and our meditations to talk to God. I have a friend who I rarely see anymore, sometimes for years. Yet, when we do visit it is like there is no space or time since our last visit. We keep up with each other sure, but there is nothing like a long afternoon together whether it be on the golf course or merely over a cold beer. That friendship reminds me of my relationship with God, and it is a window through which I see what my relationship with God should be. Sometimes the space and time between real visits with God has been way too long, as well. A mere hello on Sunday is hardly enough.

Lent, first and foremost, is a time to renew your acquaintance with God. It is time to visit an old friend. As we say in the South, visit “an old friend since birth.”

1st Thursday in Lent

"Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life." 1 John Chapter 2

Last night, in answer to this question of "what are you giving up for Lent" Six year old Will answered without hesitation, "computer games." Considering how much Will loves computer games, I was impressed and I asked him why. Will responded "Because it's a promise to God. You make a big promise in Lent to show God how much you love him" Whatever they are paying the Sunday School teachers obviously isn't enough.

Not to be outdone his brother Jake chimed in. "I am giving up telling lies and not getting up in the morning." "You can't give up something that you should never do in the first place. I doesn't work that way." I responded.

But isn't that what I always do? Every year, at the beginning of Lent I ask myself. "What am I going to give up this year." This is what Lent has become in my family and I sense in our culture as a whole. Lent, which is meant to be a period of meditation and and reflection to prepare us for the new dawn of Easter has instead become some sort of excuse to do what we should probably be doing all along.

So when I say that this year for Lent I am going to try and workout more and give up candy am I making a promise to God as Will wants me to do, or am I just making a promise to myself? Considering God's promise to all of us, maybe I can make a better promise to him.

Ash Wednesday

All shall be well and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. -- Julian of Norwich

“Wait a minute, Hubbell. Lent and Ash Wednesday is about sackcloth and ashes. Especially Ash Wednesday, you know ashes on your forehead, dust-to-dust, and all that stuff. What are you up to this year?”

Well those followers of these messages recall that I have been known to throw an occasional curveball. This year I decided to shake things up on the first pitch to keep you off-balance, or perhaps not. The forty days of Lent are approximately one-tenth of the calendar year – a ten percent tithe. Ever think about that? Lent calls us to give to ourselves a tithe. A gift to ourselves of prayer, meditation and sacrifice for forty days. This gift brings us closer to God, helps us understand ourselves, and improve the quality of our everyday life. What an awesome gift! If we only allow ourselves to receive it. The giving is easier than the receiving.

So as you begin the Lenten season think, in prayerful meditation, about what would it take to be able to say “All is well.” The answer over the next forty days may surprise you.