Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 8:42AM Giving Up
From Scott Hoezee
As someone who grew up in the Christian Reformed Church through the 1970s and 80s, I knew virtually nothing about the Season of Lent until my college years. Back in Ada, Michigan, and at the Ada CRC, we could not have distinguished Lent from lint. But I was at least dimly aware of the purpose behind Lent and some of the practices that Catholics observed as part of it.
During my college years I had a part-time job at a large retail furniture store. One Saturday during lunch in the break room, one of the salespersons proudly announced "I am giving up swearing for Lent." No one else seemed to bat an eye at this but even I knew something about that didn't sound right. "You're not supposed to give up something you shouldn't do in the first place!" I replied. "That's like giving up child abuse for Lent." My colleague was not amused. I just knew he wanted to swear at me.
But in truth, we Americans are not very good at giving up much of anything. It is by now well known that any talk of sacrifice is fatal for politicians. Jimmy Carter learned that the hard way, even writing in his memoirKeeping Faith that starting already with his inaugural address, he discovered that any reference to limits, to giving up, to sacrifice for the greater good just did not work in America. Let others give something up (preferably those whose sacrifice will enable the rest of us to keep living large and without boundaries). But the rest of us want to hear sunny promises about getting more, not making do with less.
Reader Comments (1)
"...the problem most of us in America have is that when it comes right down to it, we want all Mardi Gras all the time, and we'll leave Lenten austerity to other nations."
Brilliant. Thanks, Scott.