Lent: Giving up Contempt

It's that awkward time of the year again where Lent starts and I never know what to say, "Happy Lent?" That just seems weird.

Anyways, in brief, since I have dishes that need to be washed and a bed calling out to me, I've been listening to Dallas Willard's lectures on his book the Divine Conspiracy and one of this themes is a reading of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7) as Christ calling us away from contempt, arguing that what Jesus does in those passages is redeeming the contemptible. I haven't read the book, but the notion has given me pause.

So for Lent, I'm giving up political news which always stirs up my contempt-o-meter. I've done this before with a general sense that my news addiction was unhealthy, but this year I feel I have a bead on the problem: when I read news, I'm not really just encountering information I'm judging and condemning. It's ugly.

Sadly, however, the news is really the least of my problems. What I have realized recently is that the object of my regular contempt is my children. When I get impatient and raise my voice, when I feel I can't take it any more, what has happened in my heart is that I am holding my children in contempt. So while Lent is frequently about foregoing something and I am doing that, this Lent, I want to dig in an embrace kindness and embrace my children.

Simplicity and the single treasure

Lenten musing 2

"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light" (Matt. 6:22, KJV). If all within us is honed down to the single treasure of Christ and his Kingdom, then we are living in the light of simplicity.
...
With our eye focused on Christ the Center, we are to live with glad and generous hearts. This is simplicity.
~Richard Foster, Freedom of Simplicity, p. 36

One of the features of Lent is a paring back of "life": withdrawing from certain foods, habits, experiences. Not knowing all the history, I can only speak to the effect this appears to have. Paring back in this can help us to focus anew on "Christ the Center". For me, I've stepped away from seeking political and economic news for the season. My usual habit is to skim three national newspapers a day and links from political bloggers. I found that the first influence of my every day was the news and most of it was pretty angry or anger inspiring. That seemed a bit out of kilter with what I thought should be the first influence of my day.

Foster's Freedom of Simplicity happens to be my current browse book and it seems fitting for the Lenten season. On some level contemporary life is not simple. Yet Jesus calls us to his rest and makes it sound like there is space in the kingdom for simplicity. I think Foster is getting at that kind of simplicity, not some fairy tale pastoral ideal (and pastoral life isn't that simple). As Christ moves to the center of our lives, I think we begin to dwell in simplicity of focus. It's not that I shouldn't read the news, but can I learn to read the news while focused on Christ? I think I'd like to see that happen.