Intentions

“God does not wait for the world to get ready, He enters right into the mess…because He comes for the messy.”Katie Davis, missionary to Uganda

Lent is upon us – the season of Spring Cleaning for the Soul. That’s a good thing. I could use a good dusting every now and then, and now is as good a time as any.

I suspect that if one were to conduct a poll, fewer and fewer people today would know what Lent is than would have known a decade or two ago. It seems (in a completely unscientific and biased opinion based upon personal observation) that attention has increasingly been drawn to Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, or Carnival – times of decadent feasting and merriment, followed by nausea, headaches, and memory loss. Wait, I am sure there is a pill for that!

Lent is increasingly becoming a lost and forgotten season. Even amongst those who honor the forty day season of self examination, prayer, and fasting, making it through all forty days unscathed is rare. One woman admitted to me yesterday, “If I make it one week past Ash Wednesday with my good intentions, that’ll be a miracle!”

What is so hard about Lent?

Perhaps the difficulty lies in not really understanding what the season is about. I call it Spring Cleaning for the Soul because that helps me to understand it better. There is a lot in life that gets in the way of my having a good or better relationship with my family, my friends, my community, and my God. One of the biggest barriers is my “intentions.”

See, I always want people to judge me based upon my intentions, because my intentions are always good – or so I tell myself. I didn’t mean to miss the party, I had the time wrong. I didn’t mean to forget to bring flowers home for Valentine’s Day; I just got too busy handling world crises. I didn’t mean to run into the light pole; it just happened to be on the sidewalk where I was driving.

As I have gotten older, of course, I have come to learn that people don’t judge one another based upon intentions, but upon actions. When the repair people don’t show up as scheduled, I don’t care what their intentions were; I care about their broken promise. When a person doesn’t return a phone call, I don’t care what their intentions were; I care about their letting me down.

I suspect that many people who believe in God in one form or another intend to honor God in a variety of ways; honoring God by being truthful, kind, honest, and generous of spirit. However, in practice, we often find there is a bit of a gulf between intentions and actions. The purpose of Lent is to work to close the gap between intents and actions.

We do not try to earn salvation by giving up chocolates, meats, or sweets, or by giving more generously to godly causes, or praying more fervently during this forty day season; rather, we simply strive to draw closer to God – acknowledging our actions don’t always live up to our ideals.

When I was a child and asked to dust the house on cleaning day, I would pick up knick knacks and dust under them; I would dust between every slat on the window blinds; I would dust the top, sides, and bottom of every piece of furniture ever so carefully – as long as Mom was in the room. But the moment she left, I figured everything the dust rag came within ten feet of was “properly dusted.”

In maturity, I dust properly – not because someone is watching (although that still helps a little) – but because that is the right thing to do; that’s the right way to do it.

Lent invites us to draw closer to God, not because God (or neighbor) is watching, but because drawing closer to God is the right thing to do. Spending time in prayer, meditating on scripture, eating healthy meals in smaller portions, and giving more generously to those in need – those are all ways to draw closer to God, and to help shrink the gap between our intentions and our actions.

I would suggest that might be worth trying out in this, our world. Have a blessed and holy Lent!