(DR. THOMAS, THIS IS THE BLOG I WANT SPECIFIC FEEDBACK ON. THANK YOU!)
Unless you've been living under a rock for the last week (or you don't happen to attend a Franciscan university, like I do), you've probably noticed that it's now the Christian liturgical season of Lent. If the crowd of ash-faced church-goers walking around all day last Wednesday didn't clue you in, maybe you noticed the increased number of crucifix necklaces being worn or the drastic reduction in chocolate consumption by your friends and coworkers as they strive to devote themselves to God.
Lent is all about deprivation and repentance. God tells us in the Bible to "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning" (Joel 2:12). Christians abstain from meat, give up favorite activities or foods, and spend more time pursuing God in prayer and devotion. We hear and reflect on stories of Jesus fasting, praying, and even being tempted by the devil himself.
You may be looking at the title of my blog and the title of this post, scratching your head in bewilderment. Fear not. You don't scratch alone. I too was rather perplexed as to how I could apply The Positivity Project to such a season as Lent. The two concepts seem completely at odds with each other, and yet I feel compelled to reconcile them.
Yes, Lent can seem like a negative thing when you look at the material end of things. Most Christians expect to spend forty days fasting (from food or some other pleasurable activity), giving alms, and doing acts of penance. In other words we give up, for a little over a month, all the things we generally think we need to be happy and functional human beings. How can this possibly be a good thing?
Well, sometimes it takes a rough journey to really appreciate the end reward. Yes, we spend weeks baring our souls, identifying the parts of us that separate us from God and figuring out ways to bring ourselves back. Throughout this spiritual journey we remove ourselves from worldly concerns and focus more on growing closer to God. While this quest may have some unpleasant earthly consequences (having to pass on a steak on your Friday night out or losing a couple minutes of sleep to say a rosary in the morning, for example), it theoretically has boundless spiritual rewards.
This is all well and good for those who believe in the idea of Lent, but even from a non-Christian standpoint, taking 40 days to step back and evaluate your life can be a beneficial exercise. I would confidently guess that there isn't anybody out there living a perfect life and taking the time to focus on all the things they want to focus on. These people may not see the positive aspect of spending forty days away from things you like in order to grow closer to God, but I think everyone can appreciate the idea of spending some time in self-reflection and evaluating what really matters in life. At the end, you'll find it was worth spending some time away from that one little thing that used to be endlessly important to you to discover what truly and fundamentally matters to you as a person.
And that's the thing to remember about Lent: although it may seem interminable while you're craving a Hershey's kiss or dying to know what's been going on in the Facebook world, it does in fact come to an end after just 44 short days. And it's not just any end, either. The season of Lent culminates (for Christians) with the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: Easter. All these difficult things we do during Lent - deprivation, repentance, self-examination - lead up to the most triumphant moment in Christianity. And that's one heck of a silver lining.
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