Meditations on Lent -#5
I love receiving holiday cards and letters from family – biological and intentional. For some, holiday season has extended through February or even March. Some arrive with photos and vivid descriptions of their joys, accomplishments and trials of the past year. Sometime early in the new year I will clean off the large bulletin board in my kitchen and post all the new photos. Throughout the year I will post other photos or mementoes of gatherings. I will daily sit for some time with these reminders of the richness of my life. I am also aware of the stack of church bulletins, theater and symphony performance tickets, and other community events I share with neighbors and loved ones. They quickly pile up on the table near the bulletin board.
One of the “dangers” of keeping these reminders close by is that I am sometimes tempted to keep score. Just yesterday I received a long holiday letter which details the long list of good deeds which friends have done the past year. If I did not know better I might think that this family is exaggerating or even arrogantly boasting. I know, however that this exceptional family lives very simply, joyfully takes care of others in the United States and South America, and is humbly grateful for the opportunity to do so.
I love reading their letters but am tempted when I finished to score their goodness and mine. They would score 99.9999999 out of a possible 100 and I would score 10 or 15 out of a possible 100. Yet, I know that each of us is offering our unique contribution. Of course, I know that I hope to keep growing spiritually and would like to come closer to my idealized version of the humility and self-sacrifice of many of my friends. The insecure part of me knows that I am much too attached to the luxuries of my life to be able to approach this idealized version of near sainthood.
I am reminded that in this season of Lent one of the attachments I could let go of would be this attachment to comparison and to my idealized version of the sainthood of others. I do both them and myself a disservice by not embracing our shared humanness. I find it relatively easy to give up tangible luxuries during Lent. I find it more difficult to give up my attachment to this tendency to judge myself and others; to celebrate my worth compared to the worth of those I decide are genuinely spiritual.
The God of my understanding does not require that I be more than, better than, richer than, humbler than or in any way compared to others; just that for today I accept Grace – unconditional love. The more I am willing to accept this Grace the more filled I will be and the more I will have to share with others.
Written March 11, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
Coachpickett.org
I love receiving holiday cards and letters from family – biological and intentional. For some, holiday season has extended through February or even March. Some arrive with photos and vivid descriptions of their joys, accomplishments and trials of the past year. Sometime early in the new year I will clean off the large bulletin board in my kitchen and post all the new photos. Throughout the year I will post other photos or mementoes of gatherings. I will daily sit for some time with these reminders of the richness of my life. I am also aware of the stack of church bulletins, theater and symphony performance tickets, and other community events I share with neighbors and loved ones. They quickly pile up on the table near the bulletin board.
One of the “dangers” of keeping these reminders close by is that I am sometimes tempted to keep score. Just yesterday I received a long holiday letter which details the long list of good deeds which friends have done the past year. If I did not know better I might think that this family is exaggerating or even arrogantly boasting. I know, however that this exceptional family lives very simply, joyfully takes care of others in the United States and South America, and is humbly grateful for the opportunity to do so.
I love reading their letters but am tempted when I finished to score their goodness and mine. They would score 99.9999999 out of a possible 100 and I would score 10 or 15 out of a possible 100. Yet, I know that each of us is offering our unique contribution. Of course, I know that I hope to keep growing spiritually and would like to come closer to my idealized version of the humility and self-sacrifice of many of my friends. The insecure part of me knows that I am much too attached to the luxuries of my life to be able to approach this idealized version of near sainthood.
I am reminded that in this season of Lent one of the attachments I could let go of would be this attachment to comparison and to my idealized version of the sainthood of others. I do both them and myself a disservice by not embracing our shared humanness. I find it relatively easy to give up tangible luxuries during Lent. I find it more difficult to give up my attachment to this tendency to judge myself and others; to celebrate my worth compared to the worth of those I decide are genuinely spiritual.
The God of my understanding does not require that I be more than, better than, richer than, humbler than or in any way compared to others; just that for today I accept Grace – unconditional love. The more I am willing to accept this Grace the more filled I will be and the more I will have to share with others.
Written March 11, 2019
Jimmy F Pickett
Coachpickett.org
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