Giving Up My
Will for Lent
For the third straight year, I have
fallen ill at the beginning of Lent. Being a teacher, I live half of each day in a
petri dish, and regardless of my dedication to hand-washing, I know picking up
a few germs this time of year is inevitable.
But I also suspect that God is trying to tell me something.
Every year as Lent approaches, I work
on figuring out what my Lenten discipline will be. I try to make it relevant to an area in which
I believe I need to grow. And yet, the
train has been derailed these past three years by illness that has made it
difficult to fast, perform other Lenten disciplines, and even to pray.
My intentions and resolutions have
been good, but they have all been mine, functions of my will, what I have
chosen to do for Lent. With the
illnesses, God asks me to sacrifice in a method in which I have not
chosen. I have to set aside, for a short
time, the crosses I have chosen, and accept the cross I have been given.
I’ll admit it has taken me a while to
learn the lesson, but this year I have done better, at least, of offering my
sickness as a prayer; of trying to unite it with the Cross of Christ; of
praying in solidarity with those around the world suffering far more than
myself; and of giving up my will for Lent.
