Tue 6 Mar 2007
Lent
Posted by Liza under Personal, Training and Development
I’ve been thinking about Lent since Sunday at church.
This is new, I’ve never really thought about Lent before. I had vague childhood ideas about “giving something up for Lent,” mostly acquired from books I think. But I never really bought into the idea that God wanted me to suffer by giving something up, even if it was just for awhile. When I try to think of “God” like that is when I am most unbelieving.
I heard something different in the sermon about Lent on Sunday. I got it as an opportunity to practice some area of self-discipline, not because I should suffer, but actually because self-discipline is valuable and will help me to be more of the person I want to be. And to take on such a practice during Lent is to take it on as part of a global community of people all trying to become more disciplined and better able to be the people we want to be, or in some cases, that we believe that God wants us to be.
So here is what I am taking on for the remaining 33 days of Lent: I am not going to make any frivolous purchases, including but not limited to anything at Starbucks, any books, anything from the Internet, or any more toys for Noah.
Right now, I just don’t have a very mindful relationship to money — at least not the ebb and flow of day to day money. I’m pretty good at long-term planning and money. Our retirement accounts are in good shape
I’ll be reporting back on my results.
Day one, good with one exception: $20 worth of lottery tickets, pot estimated at $370 million.
As has been discussed extensively in the comments on other money related posts, I have a longstanding commitment with my parents and sister and Jill that we all have shares of one another’s lottery tickets.
March 6th, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Liza - We bought tickets too… and I am in a 10 person pool at work.
Only 4 minutes ’till we are Millionaires!
xoxoxo
March 6th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Liza neglected to mention that I’m in her pool. An oversight, no doubt, given that she’s in my pool, too.
March 7th, 2007 at 10:03 am
I really like the take on Lent you’ve described here. I’m married to a VERY Catholic dude who believes in the whole suffering thing, which has always rubbed me the wrong way… not just because I don’t believe in a God who wants to foist suffering upon us, but because the idea that giving up beer is somehow similar to what Jesus went through is absolutely laughable. I have previously thought of Lent as an opportunity to contribute to the world around me in a new way - volunteering someplace new, donating, random acts of kindness - which seemed more meaningful than giving up chocolate. But I think the self-discipline thing makes a lot of sense. Gotta figure out how to fold that into the mix. Thanks for the new thoughts to chew on!
(and for the record, those lottery tickets sound like investments, not rogue spend.
)
March 7th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Sadly, we, the collective we, do not appear to have won $370 million dollars.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Man, I didn’t win the lotto either.
We don’t give up stuff for lent at my church. But I do understand the need to be disciplined and in control. (Shhhh, let’s not talk about my hidden addiction to caffeine!!)
Good luck!
March 7th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
I like the self-discipline idea much better than the way it’s often treated, like a New Years Resolutions, rather than something with more meaning. I think it would be great to do acts of kindness, too. Maybe the first day, do one thing, second day do two, etc. The first few days would be easy but as you try to do 30+ acts of kindness, you really have to plan ahead and think about others and how to do things for them. It might open people’s eyes to all that they can do for others.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Jean, what a totally awesome idea! By the end, you’d really be doing a lot, which would be extremely cool.
March 7th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
I like your thoughts on the self-discipline aspect of it. I’ve recently come to view giving things up for Lent more as a common courtesy for all that God has given the world. Not to get “churchy,” but if Jesus died on the cross for us, I should be able to go without a few weeks of All My Children in honor of his sacrifice. Even though it’s REALLY hard!
Good luck!
March 11th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Hi Liza,
I landed here from Google. My name is Liza also. Just for fun, I ggogled my name “Liza” …and out of the 13,000,000 Liza’s out there, my name (actually my blog’s name) is number 9 on the rank. Yours is number 8
Anyway, I just read through some of your post and your post about Lent caught my eyes. Please don’t get offended (I really don’t mean to)…but I would like to clarify that God does not really want us to “do the sacrifice”..what he wants is for us to come to him and hae a “relationship” with Him. (It’s just my 2 cents, and I apologize in advance if this seems like “intruding”. I have written “my story” in my blog if you’re interested to find out more about the “relationship” I am talking about).
Aloha,
Liza