Our conversation about Lent continued this week. This is really just one small piece of a much longer discussion. A question arose about “sacrifice” – what is it? Is it necessary? How does it relate to our lives?
One thought was that if we’re living our lives every day making smart choices, not wasting, taking care of the earth by not buying too much might “look like” a life of sacrifice but it really isn’t.
This reminds me of an essay I read recently by one of my favourite authors, Ann Patchett: My Year of No Shopping. Challenged by a friend Ann decided to not buy anything for a year. Oh not necessaries like groceries and shampoo. But all that other stuff she was buying just because she likes things like a new sweater, some perfume, a snazzy purse or even an extra kettle (because who knew they even made red kettles?)
It didn’t take her very long to notice that she had lots more time. And that there was more money in her last year’s purse. But what surprised her was her emerging sense of people who had much less. It was as if the “extra space in her brain made room for the poor.” Her friend too had continued the practice of not shopping and discovered that “Our capacity to give is huge.” Patchett discovered in the end “I still have plenty. I know there’s a big difference between not buying things and not being able to buy things. Not shopping for a year hardly makes me one with the poor but it’s put me on a path of figuring ot what I can do to help.”
I compared this way of thinking to what happened to us as we gave up our church building and approach Lent this year a little like a group who’ve become “homeless.” Like Ann we’re by no means anywhere near the real homeless, but we’ve become more aware of what it means to truly be without things we might have taken for granted before. And all the things we truly didn't need. Our capacity to help grew larger, but more important our desire to help expanded.
That’s where my Lenten meditation leads me today.
One thought was that if we’re living our lives every day making smart choices, not wasting, taking care of the earth by not buying too much might “look like” a life of sacrifice but it really isn’t.
This reminds me of an essay I read recently by one of my favourite authors, Ann Patchett: My Year of No Shopping. Challenged by a friend Ann decided to not buy anything for a year. Oh not necessaries like groceries and shampoo. But all that other stuff she was buying just because she likes things like a new sweater, some perfume, a snazzy purse or even an extra kettle (because who knew they even made red kettles?)
It didn’t take her very long to notice that she had lots more time. And that there was more money in her last year’s purse. But what surprised her was her emerging sense of people who had much less. It was as if the “extra space in her brain made room for the poor.” Her friend too had continued the practice of not shopping and discovered that “Our capacity to give is huge.” Patchett discovered in the end “I still have plenty. I know there’s a big difference between not buying things and not being able to buy things. Not shopping for a year hardly makes me one with the poor but it’s put me on a path of figuring ot what I can do to help.”
I compared this way of thinking to what happened to us as we gave up our church building and approach Lent this year a little like a group who’ve become “homeless.” Like Ann we’re by no means anywhere near the real homeless, but we’ve become more aware of what it means to truly be without things we might have taken for granted before. And all the things we truly didn't need. Our capacity to help grew larger, but more important our desire to help expanded.
That’s where my Lenten meditation leads me today.
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