Lenten Promises

A lot of people give up things for Lent.
It used to be that people gave up a lot during Lent. They ate no meat during all of Lent -- now we narrow it down to not eating meat on Fridays during Lent. They ate pancakes on Fat Tuesday -- Mardi Gras -- to use up the sugar, eggs and milk that they were supposed to not indulge in during Lent.
A lot of times now, people give up chocolate or alcohol. People use it as a time to diet before summer rather than a time to do without so they can think of Jesus when they are tempted to indulge.
When my kids were younger, I started encouraging them to do something extra rather than to give up something. Maybe they would decide to be nicer to their siblings or to do a good deed every day. Tucker made this promise one year and whenever we went places, he would run ahead and hold the door open. Then he'd proclaim his good deed was finished for the day.
I'm not very good at giving things up. Whatever I give up, I obsess about. It's all I can think about.
So I was contemplating what I could do during Lent. I could give up TV, with exceptions, like March Madness basketball and The Amazing Race.
Finally, it hit me.
One of the most spiritual things I do is run. When I go out in the early morning, I look up for the moon and the stars. I'm so happy that I've started to hear the birds sing in the spring.

I decided I would try to run 40 days during Lent. Lent is 47 days long and I didn't run on Ash Wednesday, so that gives me only six days to skip runs.
So Wednesday morning, even as the rain fell and the thermometer dipped, I slogged through some puddles to finish my run number six.
I'm not sure that I'll make it to 40 runs, but I try to add spirituality to each outing. I spend some time contemplating what I'm grateful for -- good shoes, strong legs, smooth roads, safe neighborhoods. I try to stretch my thankfulness out to the world.
And I'm always grateful when I return home to put my run away, to check that off my list.
Maybe my run wouldn't seem spiritual to everyone, but for this year, it's as close as I'm going to get.

Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent for Catholics and some other Christian denominations.

Our priest at Ohio State University joked that college students have made this their holy day of obligation. They all show up for Ash Wednesday and piously wear their ashes on their foreheads throughout the day. Good for them that they're not ashamed to have that black smear on their heads -- to proudly proclaim their religion.
On Facebook this morning, I noticed that a lot of people were declaring their Lenten sacrifices. As I read through the list, I couldn't help but wonder if Lent was a diet plan instead of a period of prayer and sacrifice.
A lot of people chose to give up pop or desserts or chocolate. Truthfully, is that going to bring people closer to their religion?
When the kids were younger, we used to give up things, like television. It wasn't a big sacrifice since we had the television in the basement and didn't watch that much of it.
Then we decided rather than giving something up, we would add something. We worked in the food pantry more regularly or tried to help other people more.
At around age 10, Tucker decided to do a good deed every day. Whenever we went some place, he would run ahead of us, hold the door open then proclaim his good deed done for that day.
I was thinking about Lent as I came home from my morning run. I could give up something, but that would probably make me grumpy.
I could commit to not missing mass during Lent, but I'll probably break that promise today because I don't see an Ash Wednesday service working into my schedule.
The thing I really need to do is reach out to the needy. The only volunteer work I do are those things that affect my kids. I've taught religious education throughout the years. I'm on the swim team parent board and I time at swim meets. I'm working on costumes for the school musical.
 But I need to choose something that's outside my family and give some time to remember the true spirit of Jesus the man. I'm not setting a minimum number of hours. I'll do my best and try to remember that Lent isn't a time to work on my body, it's a time to work on my soul.