Beginning Lent, Creating Space
The season of Lent began with Ash Wednesday this week. For the next six weeks, Christians the world over will engage in various spiritual practices in preparation for Easter. This is a time to reflect on our deep need for Christ’s work in us -- helping us turn away from those things that rob us of life and toward those things that bring us life…abundant, overflowing life. Because we know the end of the story, our spirit of repentance is infused with a spirit of joyful expectation.
Fasting is one common practice observed during Lent. People fast all kinds of things – chocolate, alcohol, meals, TV, meat, shopping. The point is to welcome God into the space that is created by giving up that thing, whatever it may be.
This time last year, I gave up nothing for Lent. I couldn’t bring myself to fast anything that held the potential to deliver any form of comfort or distraction or joy. God must have been OK with that because He never left me and just kept on showing up.
This year I find myself in a different place. Not easier. Just different. I can deal with fasting a meal or two (although I just learned you shouldn’t fast a meal if you have GERD). After praying and thinking through my “what to fast” possibilities, I landed on social media.
For 15 months, I have been engaged almost daily through social media with those who have blessed me so much by coming along with me on this journey of finding a new normal after losing Chandler. The words of encouragement have been medicine for my hurting heart. “I’m praying for you;” “I feel like I know Chandler because of your writing;” “Reading about your loss has helped me in my own grief.” Stepping back from that ongoing dialogue for the next six weeks scares me a little. My hope and prayer is that it will create space for God to work and speak in a new way. I think it will give me fresh perspective and maybe unexpected insight into how my interaction with social media shapes my thinking, moods, and attitudes.
I discovered quickly on Ash Wednesday that my muscle memory would override my intentions, at least early on in the social media withdrawal process, so I decided to move my Facebook and Instagram buttons off my homescreen. My fingers are conditioned to tap on those icons when my eyes first open in the morning, when I have a split second of boredom, in between my tasks throughout the day, and just before I turn out the light and my head hits the pillow.
Although I love catching up on the latest happenings with friends and family on social media, there’s something freeing about not surrendering to the scrolling, not going down a rabbit trail from one post to the next only to find that 20 minutes have passed.
On the pragmatic end of the spectrum, my little fast will ensure that I don’t make any more unfortunate impulse purchases from clicking on a Facebook ad…at least not for six weeks. Let me just tell you, the beach waver does not glide through your hair like on the video. It is more like a medieval torture device that you have to align perfectly for it to even hold your hair and not burn you, and when you try to copy the flip-and-glide motion of the happy model in the video, pieces of hair get caught and yanked out one by one.
I will still be writing my weekly blog post these next weeks of Lent. I just won’t be checking Facebook or Instagram. Until Easter Sunday…
Lord of all times and seasons, I enter this season of Lent with a keen awareness of my profound, constant need for you. Though a miniscule sacrifice, I pray that the giving up of social media during these next weeks will create space for you to work in me in new ways. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear anything and everything you want to teach me. Most of all, bring my attention front and center every day to the reality beneath it all – that you are good, merciful, present, and loving. Amen.
