Lent 2013

Hello, lovely people! Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Christian faith, Lent is the time during which Christians either give something up or promise to start doing something that will bring them closer to God. It lasts for forty days leading up to Easter Sunday, the day Jesus rose from the dead! Lent is a wonderful time to improve your spiritual relationship with your creator, to better yourself as a human being, and to practice the virtuous habits of discipline and dedication. Chris and I went to the 7:00 mass at our local parish today, and the mass really touched me. The priest stood up and gave a brief but powerful homily, urging us all to devote ourselves entirely to our Lenten journeys, and to view these forty days as a time to rejuvenate and replenish our souls. We all stray from the path of goodness, and we all need to be reminded of our call as children of God to be the best people we can be, and to live our lives in accordance to Jesus' teachings. The priest's words reminded me of the lyrics to one of my favorite songs by Mumford and Sons, The Cave.

"I'll find strength in pain, and I will change my ways.
I'll know my name as it's called again.
I have other things to fill my time,
You take what is yours and I'll take mine.
Now let me at the truth which will refresh my broken mind."
I think these are wonderful lyrics to keep in mind during this season of repentance and rejuvenation. The way God calls us is different than the way our friends and family call us; He calls on us not just by name, but by everything good within us, by all the love in our lives, by the very essence of our souls. He knows us better than we know ourselves, and for all our faults and failures, He loves us more than we could ever know. He sees us as infinitely beautiful, infinitely important, holy creatures —  he sees us in our true form, the form that mirrors His image.

We need to learn how to see ourselves as God sees us, and even more importantly, we need to learn how to treat ourselves as God treats us. If we see and treat ourselves as infinitely beautiful and infinitely important souls with infinite amounts of goodness and love within us, then we will surely find ourselves becoming more beautiful, more important, more good, and more loving, day by day.

This principle holds true in almost all aspects of our lives — if a girl starts seeing and treating herself as pretty, then she will, nine times out of ten, become even more pretty than she was before. If an overweight person starts seeing and treating themselves as a fit and healthy person, then they will absolutely lose weight and become fit and healthy. If a student who procrastinates and skips class starts seeing and treating himself as a serious student who cares about his work, then he will undoubtedly do better in all his classes. It all starts with the belief that we can become the people we want to be; in this case, it all starts with believing that we can become the Christian God calls us to be.

This Lent, I have promised myself to go to church every Sunday — I wish I just did this regularly, but alas, Saturday night always seems to get the best of me — give up sweets entirely, and go to the gym three times a week. When I'm healthy, I feel better about myself, my mood improves, and I have more energy to live my life with a Christian mindset. I'm less distracted with feeling bloated, or tired, or stressed. Here goes nothing!

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?" Isaiah 58:6-7.

What are your Lenten promises?