For me growing up, Lent always struck me as a somewhat dark and sombre season. The dusting of ashes on foreheads marking the start of a time of sacrifice, piety and foregoing of pleasure.
For most people, we form a particular impression of God based on our childhood experiences. For me this was a God who was distant, needing to be pleased who seemed open to negotiating and bargaining.
In my 20's my early forays into lent focused around the question “What was I giving up for Lent?” I had fallen into the trap of believing I could earn God's pleasure and love through this season, somehow I thought if I gave up chocolate, caffeine or alcohol then God would be pleased with and shine his light on me. I thought God's thoughts toward me were changeable - If I kept a good lent, I could make him happy, I could earn his love. Over time as I have come to know God more I have seen how wrong my thinking was.
The reality is that God wants nothing more than for us to be drawn into a loving relationship with him. He wants us to experience his love. He wants a relationship with us that will grow deeper and more intimate over time. An intimate and loving God is a frequent image in scripture. We think of the unconditional love of the prodigal's father, the compassion of the good samaritan to a stranger, Jesus loving action to the marginalised, downtrodden, the blind, the lepers. From the Old Testament, the poetry that flows from the heart of David in his Psalms is filled with love towards a loving God. He speaks of drinking from God's river of delights, he describes how his Lover has filled his heart with greater joy than all the wealth men have found. He cries through the night aching and thirsting to be with God.
Often, the practice of Lent has been reduced to the question: “What are you giving up for Lent?” The danger of this approach is that it puts the focus or spotlight on ourselves rather than God......what are YOU giving up....what are YOU doing....how will YOU please God.
Spanish priest and mystic St. John of the Cross said “for any person seeking God, so much more is our beloved seeking us”. St. John of the Cross in his poetry presents an image of God wanting to initiate, invade and overwhelm us with his love.
The bottom line is that God loves us. His love is already there. He loves us unconditionally. Yet we as humans can put things in the way that block or prevent us from fully experiencing the love.
Lisette and I have blackout curtains in our bedroom. On a bright day, the sun might be shining but the curtains block out the light leaving the room in darkness. Outside the world is bright yet it is pitch black inside. If we only pull back the curtains we will experience the sun.
Modern life can lead us to experience lives so busy and cluttered that we don't have time or space to experience God. Maybe we can see Lent as a time of spiritual decluttering and spring cleaning. A time to reflect on what is hindering us from being able to linger under God’s loving gaze. What are the blackout curtains we have established in our lives that block out God's loving light? Which habits or patterns might we need to discontinue in order to make more time or allow more space for the love of God to flourish.
St. John of the Cross writes “progress is not measured by the ground covered but by the amount of room we give God to manoeuvre.” Lent is not a time to take on more things to earn Gods love, it's about removing some debris to let the love shine through.
If a relationship is to blossom at a minimum it requires time spent together and communication. If we want our relationship with God to blossom so we need to give space to encounter God.
So this lent - How can you clear out the debris so that I can be restored with God? What might you do to prioritise and devote time to be with the one who loves us. What do you need to do to get in the way of God's loving gaze?
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