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Greetings all. Well it’s lent again and what can I say? Last year at this time I wrote an article entitled ‘Lets hear it for denial’, basicaly saying that a little bit of going ‘without’ is good for you. If I remember rightly a key point to that article was that if you give something up for lent, you give up a distraction and can concentrate on what is left. Fantastic, but I am now left with a problem. That article from last year seems to wrap up the idea of Lent so what else can be said? Well at the end of that article I said that I reckoned that you would enjoy something all the more having given it up for a bit, absence makes the heart grow fonder. What I would like to say for this Lent leads on from that.
This is best explained through the story of a friend of mine who is an evangelical church pastor. He used to view food as fuel, it did not matter what it was, shovel it in there and keep the motor running. His missus, apparently loved this, having been blighted by living with fussy eaters at another point in her life, she thought it was great to see someone who would eat whatever was put in front of them, especially at a time in their lives where he was doing the eating and she was doing the cooking. Life has however changed for them, he was someone with a full time job who was involved in church work on the side and now it is very much the other way around. This has lead to some interesting situations for him. One was his discovery of cheeses, moreover cheese with a small bit of relish. The relish in question was particular to the location he was in, as was the cheese and for the first time in his life he really got the whole food appreciation thing. I was talking to him on the phone and he was amazed. He had listened to me waffling on about about flavours and foody things for years but never really understood and was really energised by the experience of realising that food was more than just diesel for his body’s engine. So what did he do to celebrate? He went on a strict fast to think about it, pray and give thanks! For years he had judged food only by volume, but now he really understood what food was, so he got rid of the volume all together for a while and when he started eating again with a fresh pallet he was eating fresh but plain food and loving it. He told me that he had never really tasted a tomato before, just consumed them, but now he realised that he loved them.
In our society so much is judged by volume that I think that we have forgotten the real value of a lot of things and the wonder that we should attach to them. I think of Lent as a time to cleanse our pallet and for once to try and concentrate on quality instead of quantity. With myself I think of my relationship with coffee. I used to guzzle it down to keep me going, 16 or so big mugs a day. Now I drink a lot less, but I buy better coffee and I try and drink my first coffee every day in a mindfull way so I can thank God for this wonderful gift of caffeine through which I live, move and usually by just after 7 am, it has me up and conscious. I suppose that with winter finally over and the storms gone, we might want to give ourselves a treat. Well alright, but since it is Lent why not try taking a chunk of time to enjoy a little bit of something rather than, as is too often, doing it the other way around and maybe you might be surprised at what Lent might give you a taste for.
Rev. Máirt - one wife, two weekends ‘til Ireland play Zimbabwe in the cricket, three kids and four years till the next winter Olympics.