Lent And Life

Last updated on: February 23, 2023 at 2:33 pm by C. Don Jones

Lent And Life 2023-02-23T14:33:46-06:00 C. Don Jones

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Lent is another word for Spring. I was surprised to learn this fact. Somehow, I got the idea it meant “fasting” or something similar. No one asks me, “What are you giving up for Spring?” It does not make much sense. But if someone asked what I was doing for Spring, I have several answers. It makes me ponder how Lent as an observance factors into these other tasks.

Lent And Gardeners

Where I live, we plant beans on Good Friday. Corn and squash planting is done close to that same time. But beans are for Good Friday or Holy Week because the risk of frost is mostly past us. The plants would die from the cold. It is also the time of rain which is important for the plants.

Potatoes should be planted around Ash Wednesday. The weather is cooler making the work involved easier. The first leaves will come up later in Lent when it is time to pull dirt over them thereby “hilling” the potatoes. This practice allows for more growth.

Greens, beets, onions, cabbages, and lettuces should be planted after the potatoes. The cooler weather allows these plants to grow more slowly gathering more nutrients and flavor. Plant enough to share with rabbits and other animals you cannot outwit.

These are vegetable crops. Spring flowers are planted during Autumn. Summer and Autumn flowers are planted during Lent.

Spring Life

I also associate Lent with Little League Baseball. My practice as a parent was to help children (mostly boys but some girls) learn to throw and hit a small off-white ball. Later, I helped other parents learn how to teach these skills. I tell them about hand and eye coordination and quick decision making. Literally, we teach the children to think on their feet.

Lent is about spiritual preparation or exercise. We are training more than our own willpower. In observing Lent, we are training a sense of Christian character into ourselves. How should we respond to adversity? The best way to understand that is working on some form of self-denial. Specialists in addiction recovery know that the brain changes as a person develops ways of avoiding relapse or, to use a church word, backsliding. The adaptations in the brain are often more dense in structure than the previous configurations. This allows the new behavior to remain. You can, so to speak, teach new tricks to the old dog and have them stick.

The 21-days-to-a-new-habit method works on the same principle. Lent is not about developing a new habit. The observance is about reflecting on our past behavior and finding a new way of being in life.

Lent and Repentance

Repentance is life-long. It should not be constant self-loathing. A repentant person changes mind and action in lifeways. Going back to the gardener’s time and seasons, consider how unhealthful it is to attempt to produce food outside of the proper life-cycles. As a society, we do that by expecting cheap food out of season. In doing this, we lose most of the value of the food itself. Flavor and nutrition are sacrificed thus harming our physical and perhaps mental health.

Spiritual health comes from proper nutrition and action. There is always a spiritual temptation toward pride. This temptation is about outward appearances. When I introduced my spouse to heirloom tomatoes, she asked if they were all right to eat. Heirloom tomatoes do not have the bright red coloring that looks good on labels. The one’s I raised last year were a greenish purple hue. A few weeks later she declared, I had made a convert of her. Spiritual pride or hubris looks good to people who do not know what to look for. Genuine spirituality is healthy to physical, emotional, and mental well-being.

Lent gives us the opportunity to look for that genuineness. More importantly, this season allows us to live out the genuineness we already know we should do.

Previous Post

February 20, 2023

Out Of The Chapel: The Problem of Youth Revival

Next Post

February 27, 2023 The Problem of Biblical Literalists

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Addiction Advent Afghanistan Anxiety Ascension Sunday Baptism Barack Obama Biblical Interpretation Bigotry Book Banning BSA Buddhism Choice Christmas Church Discipline Community Conscience Conspiracy theories COVID-19 Culture Wars death cults deconstruction Devotional Divine Judgment Donald Trump Earth Day Election Day empathy Environmentalism Evangelism Exploitation of the Poor Faith False Claims fascism Fear Forgiveness Genocide government Grace Gun Violence Halloween Hate Health Hillbilly Elegy Hindu Holy Communion Holy Week Homelessness Hope Identity Integrity Islam Joe Biden John Hagee Kamala Harris Labor Lent Liberation Theology Lies Love Love as action Neurological disorders Non-Christian Religions Online Worship Original Goodness Pandemic Peace Pentecost Philosophy Preaching Progressive Christianity Racism Redemptive Violence Myth Resentment Saint's Days Satire Sobriety social media Spiritual Self Care Spirituality Technology The Kingdom of God The United Methodist Church Theology Transfigurations Sunday Transgender persons Truth Uncategorized Violence Wesleyan Working Class

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 March 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 January 2025 October 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 February 2018 January 2018 August 2017 May 2017 November 2016 July 2016 June 2016 November 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 January 2015 November 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 June 2013 March 2013 February 2013 December 2012 August 2012 July 2012 May 2012 February 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Where was Jesus Born?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jerusalem Shiloh Bethlehem Nazareth