The Discipline of Lent

I'm a little behind on my "40 Bags for 40 Days" Lenten project. I just rid the house of two bags that went on the calendar for Saturday, March 6 and last Monday, the 8th. However, getting rid of 40 bags has been a little slow for me because I haven't been willing to just throw them out. It seems my Lenten Penance has taken on a little different twist.

Years ago, as a good Methodist, I decided to add positive disciplines into my life for Lent rather than trying to give up things. One year, I wrote a letter every day during Lent. I had a friend, a young Army Officer, that was stationed in Korea and was desperately lonely. The daily letters went to him. I was amazed that I was able to keep it up for 40 days. Some of the letters were short, but he got something in the mail continuously.

One year, I visited nursing homes every Sunday during Lent. I didn't know anyone there; I just went, socialized with lonely people and did a lot of touching and hugging. It's been my experience that older people, especially those put in care homes, crave personal contact. I spent my Lent touching.

There was another year that I decided I needed to improve my prayer life. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, who prayed every hour on the hour when awake. He trained himself and truly was a man constantly in an attitude of prayer. I set a timer for myself and started off Lent really excited. By 10 days into the season, I realized that my brain had very effectively taught itself to tune out the alarm. I never even heard it. I don't know how Wesley accomplished this training, but it was a miserable failure for me.

Anyway, back to this year. I found myself cleaning out the children's drawers and closets and cleaning off the shelf in the laundry room where we always put things we've outgrown. As I began to bag up all these clothes, I realized that some of them were special to me. I didn't want to send them to Good Will or the Salvation Army. Some of the pieces were in excellent shape, and I began thinking: "Who do I know that could really benefit from these things?"

It began a whole new secondary discipline. The reason I've fallen behind on my Project is because I'm now sorting everything I plan to get out of the house into bags for different people I know that I think could use them. So far, 4 families have benefited from my 40 bags (or 20 so far for me, I think) and the clothes closet at my parents' church got a bag of children's clothes. A bag of books went to my sister for the Realtor's Yard Sale she's been lassoed to head and a bag of food-stuffs from our pantry went into a collection barrel at the school for the mountain people served by the Missionaries of Charity in Kentucky. Some sugar-free items left on the counter by my sister after her visit with us are being delivered to a classmate of one of my children that's diabetic today and a few other food items are finding new homes with people who can appreciate and use them.

All-in-all, even though I've fallen a little behind, I'm very pleased with the results of my Lent. I've been focused on ridding our home of useless items while blessing others. I'm starting to feel a little freer and, man, is it addictive.

I still have lots more sorting and disposing to tend to, but I'm off to an excellent start and feel like I've really entered into the mindset of Christ this Lent.

Now if I can just get through the toys.