LENT 2020: LEGACY
Through the Lenten season, we hope to explore some historic ways Christians have practiced Lent including learning the practices of prayer, fasting, serving, living simply, and giving. Each Lenten reflection is accompanied by some suggestions of ways that you and your family might experiment with the practices of Lent. Today, we look at the discipline of Living Simply.
LIVING SIMPLY
The conditions and pace of present-day living devour the ‘life of simplicity’. Richard Swenson, in his book, Margins, writes, “Progress has given us unprecedented affluence, education, technology and entertainment. We have comforts and conveniences other eras could only dream about. Yet somehow, we are not flourishing under the gifts of modernity as one would expect. If we have ten times more material abundance than our ancestors, why are we not ten times more content and fulfilled?” It’s the million-dollar question.
Our problem, as St. Augustine often noted, is not usually that we love too little, but that we love too much. The discipline of simplicity (or living simply) tames our exaggerated love and desire for possessions. We simplify our lives by letting go of things that we don’t need or that someone else needs more than we do.
The intention of this part of the Lenten discipline is exactly that: taking less for ourselves so we can share more with the poor. St. Francis of Assisi (pictured on the other side), founder of the Franciscan order, born into a wealthy family, committed to follow the example of Christ, and lived in poverty and preached the Gospel to all around him.
How can we practice this discipline? St. Francis taught that we are to treat everything in life as a gift from God. Here are some of the benefits of treating all things as a gift:
- Contentment vs. Striving: This may help us to be content with what God has given than constant craving. The contented person experiences the sufficiency of God’s provision for his/her needs and the sufficiency of God’s grace for their circumstances.
- Sharing vs. Hoarding: Generosity is the realization of just how greatly I have been blessed by God. Perhaps by that definition, the people of God should be the most generous people in the world. Our giving is a natural way to express our love for and trust in God.
- Rejoicing vs. Coveting: Seeing all things as a gift from God releases us from unhealthy competition and comparison. The more content we are with our own lives, the more freedom we have to celebrate another’s success instead of falling prey to jealousy.
THE PRACTICE
Take the Simplicity Challenge: Choose items to purge from your home and services or memberships (Hulu, Netflix, carwash, etc.) to cancel. Sell items on craigslist or have a garage sale - donate proceeds from sales and savings from memberships to Mexico Missions/Grace Sacramento.