by Jill Lin
Lent is quiet.
Unlike other holidays and seasons, Lent doesn’t ask us to fill our schedule. If we are honest, Advent, also a season of preparation, is often filled with busy-ness. The calendar in December can be packed with events, activities and checklists. We can find ourselves overwhelmed during “the most wonderful time of the year”, as Christmas has collided into Advent and crashed into end-of-year to-do-lists in a way that is often exhausting. Yet not just Advent and Christmas, but Thanksgiving, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, vacations … these beautiful holidays and times of the year all require a whole lot of “doing”.
For women, the cultural pressure of this can be especially acute. Yet Lent does not come with this pressure. There’s nothing extra to do or prepare except our hearts.
Lent doesn’t require any holiday busy-ness. While we might choose to light a candle as we pray, or read a devotional, such things are done quietly. There is no social obligation to host a party, or feed a huge group of people. We don’t have to decorate the house, or keep it looking pristine. There’s no need to bake a mammoth amount of treats. There are no extra events on the calendar for most of Lent.
No shopping.
No new clothes and dressing up.
In fact, the opposite. Less food can be prepared as we fast. Fasting, reflection, prayer and silence don’t really invite parties or decorations. Sack-cloth and, literally, ashes, are perfectly appropriate to wear. Lent’s very habits invite us to slow down, do less, not more.
Lent invites us, rather, to let go of the things that distract us and be still. It invites us to fast, to pray, to contemplate.
Lent whispers: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)
This well-known verse is also rendered “Cease striving and know that I am God” (NASB)
I can almost feel myself relax and exhale at the thought!
I love holidays and creativity, festivity and celebration, but I also know I need rest. Unlike other holidays or seasons, Lent doesn’t add more to our load, but by its very practices reduce it.
It comes with echoes of Jesus’ invitation to Martha:
In Luke 10: 40-42 we read:
[…] Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
“Martha, Martha, you are worried about many things”. We often find ourselves like Martha, with much to occupy us, striving hard. Lent openly invites us, as Jesus did to Martha, to cease all that striving and rest with Him.
“Mary has chosen the better thing”. The nature of practicing Lent encourages us to do that. To sit at the Master’s feet, to be his disciple and learn from him. For His yoke is easy and His burden light.
Lent’s practices of fasting, silence and prayer become a liberating opportunity to be still at the feet of Jesus. They are Lenten invitations to rest in Jesus and learn from him, savor him. Abstain from the busy-ness and rest with our Savior!
What, then, about fasting? It doesn’t sound like a restful endeavor. It sounds like hard work. Other practices like silence, prayer, meditation, Bible reading … those clearly involve slowing down and focusing on Jesus, but fasting? Yes, even fasting can be another way that Lent invites us to rest in Jesus.
What we give up for Lent are often precisely the good things that steal our attention away from our Lord. Traditionally, we abstain from delicious foods. It has also become common to fast from technology. Whether food or technology or something else, what we fast from are often the time-stealers and distractions that keep us away from focusing our eyes on Jesus, or the things we use as shallow substitutes for the peace, joy and meaning we can only find in him. This is precisely why they are so hard to give up! But it’s also why fasting from them helps us still our souls and look to Jesus.
Fasting from work or checking emails after a certain hour or more intentionally abstaining from work for a weekly Sabbath rest can help us recall that we rely on God for the future, to remember that any talents and skills – or even jobs – we have are his gracious gifts that we are mere stewards of.
Fasting from social media can help us avoid the trap of comparing ourselves with others – be that our parenting styles, our grades, our homes, our looks, our hobbies, our careers – and focus instead on who we are in Christ. As we lose the craving for the affirmation of others, we can hear him whisper that in him we are enough.
Fasting from the scales or the make-up bag, and meditating on the love of our Creator can help us hear him say “you are fearfully and wonderfully made”.
Fasting from coffee, chocolate, wine, or other favorite go-to foods (the ones we use to deal with life’s stress and worry) can let us refresh our minds in Christ instead and hear him say “I am with you”.
Fasting from doom scrolling or watching late night TV as an escapist and entertaining distraction can still our minds so we can rest and pray, and hear God promise us “joy everlasting” rather than temporary distractions.
Work, communication, our appearance, dessert … they aren’t bad things. They are good things. When rightly engaged with. But if they’ve become the things we turn to instead of Christ for our meaning or our joy, then Lent invites us to try living without them or limiting their presence and control in our lives, and instead to seek the one whose Presence and Lordship we truly long for.
In Lent, we can embrace the permission to give up all the striving and the false promises and distractions of this world, and just fix our eyes on Jesus.
In a world that asks us to behave and feel more and more like Martha in that harried moment, Lent whispers to us Jesus’ invitation to her: Few things are needed, or indeed only one. Choose what is better. Sit at his feet.
Lent invites us to rest in Jesus.