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lent

Why give up Facebook for Lent?

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wordle of things given up for lent

I was visiting my friend Mark’s facebook profile to wish him a “happy b’day” where I stumbled across his profile picture saying that he has given up facebook for lent.

My first thought was, ‘Well that stinks.’ Then I adapted my birthday message to say, ‘in 40 days’ or something along those lines. Then I began to wonder, why would you give up facebook for lent?

Maybe I have a different understanding of the social media sphere than many. I use these mediums for work and creative outlets. I’m not sure God cares for me to stop working and stop creating..

But what is lent & the practice of sacrificing that comes along with the season of lent? Is the lenten fasting just a stopping of practices that we hope to take back up again? Or are our lent fasting practices putting aside something that we know is harmful to us and we use this season to rid ourselves of the habit in order to not bring them back into our life? If smoking is bad for you, stopping for lent (except for the sundays) with the knowledge that you will start smoking again Easter Sunday seems totally counter to the spirit of preparing yourself for a resurrection & ministry in Christ.

Again, I see facebook as a relationship enabler. For example, I saw Mark just a week or two ago. I had no idea that his birthday was looming (I am super bad at birthdays, even my own). So one of my practices is to check out who’s birthdays are happening that day in facebook, and then wish them well. I don’t see anything harmful about that practice. It takes me a few minutes. I see everyone in my list of ‘friends’ and enjoy checking in on who has changed (checked out one persons new child this morning, that was news to me).

Maybe, facebook / twitter / linkedin, email etc become some distraction to people. Okay, I get that. However, is it a distraction more because of how you use the medium? Or is it a distraction because of how you let the medium use you?

Facebook, and the other social media mediums, connect people to people. That is not a bad thing. However, a sacrificial practice that is life giving in my opinion would be to not give up outlets to a mas of people, but to take the medium to focus one or two people.

You see, we now have some hyper-relationships, many relationships saying & doing many things. How about slowing that down to say, I’m going to take one day during Lent to scan my ‘friends’ and then pray for them, read up on their profile, check out their photos, ala. updating my understanding of them. From there you have a deeper understanding of the circle of influence that God has placed before you and are more able to live into that ministry of being neighbor.

Speaking of, I believe my neighbor is having their 3rd child (a girl) today, but she has yet to post it on her facebook profile to make it official. I’m waiting!!

Getting some Ashes to Start Getting Over Myself

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Yesterday marked the beginning of Lent for us in the Christian faith. I had a bit of an odd experience to begin my Lenten pilgrimage. I went to church…

Now, I am a regular church goer. But this time around I went to my friend Jody’s midday church service at Saint Joseph of Arimathea in Hendersonville. Beyond Jody, I don’t know anyone else that goes to his church (except his wife) and being that Jody is the minister it was a really odd feeling being in a strange church land.

Saint Jo’s is Episcopalian which I generally enjoy, but also frequent infrequently. Just enough to forget some of the rituals that bond that community. I was glad this go round that Jody put scriptures onto the bulletin & that the midday service didn’t have any singing. That meant I only had one book to worry about juggling.

Jody preached the gospel message on Matthew 6, as any good Episcopalian priest would.

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

His message circulated on standing out, reflecting God’s glory & not our own ego. I couldn’t help but think that I stood out at the church. It is a smaller church community than what I am used to. I’m sure people wondered..Who was this visitor person. He didn’t quite get right all the ups and downs. Sorta knew the liturgies.

This was my frame of mind going in and out of midday service.

So I came to realize.. I have a lot of myself I need to get over. Shall I give myself up for Lent?