Lent Is About Intent

Lent is all about intent. This is what Jesus tells us every Ash Wednesday. The penitential acts of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving are not about the doing of these acts, but about the intent behind the acts. Lent allows you and I the opportunity to open our lives more fully to God so that God can grow within us. In order for God to grow within, we need to make room for God by becoming less. If all our fasting, prayer, and almsgiving is about inflating our egos, then all those penitential acts are largely ineffective and worthless. Let’s be honest, giving up eating meat on Lenten Fridays is not much of a penance if walleye and salmon steaks are one of our favorite foods. What Jesus tells us on Ash Wednesday is that we need to grow poorer in order to grow richer in God. The “why” behind our Lenten actions is more important than the actions themselves. We traditionally think about “giving up” something for Lent. A challenge for you and for me may be about how can I love God, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love my neighbor as myself, more this Lent. Increasing our love of God and love for one another is a wonderful way to allow God to grow deeper in our lives. This may take the form of volunteering to read to school children, assisting at the food shelf, helping at a nursing home, visiting someone who is homebound, shoveling someone’s sidewalk, and so on. In addition to serving the presence of God in one another, let us also dedicate some quality time for prayer to God daily. Committing to pray for 20 minutes a day to God, in whatever form of prayer we best pray, e.g. formal prayer, meditation, reading and reflecting on scripture to name just a few is a wonderful way to talk and to listen to the God who loved us into creation. When we begin to deepen our relationship with God in prayer and in service to the presence of God in one another, we find ourselves growing less as God grows greater in our lives. Lent is all about intent.