During Lent, we often practice subtraction. We subtract (give up) chocolate, social media, or alcohol. One person told me she subtracts one meal each week to recognize how many people go hungry. At our church, we subtract busy programs and as many meetings as we can during Lent to focus on worship.
Subtracting what pushes into the margins is a healthy practice to delineate where life is to start and stop. Life has a way of spilling into the margins. We eat too much chocolate, consume too much social media, and drink our worries away. Wait, where is the margin? We expend too much time overparenting, pour more energy into work relationships than our marriage, and make rest a distant priority. Margin? What margin?
Perhaps it is time to wonder if Lent can be a time of addition. Can you add a screen time limit to your own phone? Add an automated gift to your favorite charity that feeds the hungry? Add to your calendar a date night with your spouse, or a self-care day for yourself? A couple of years ago, my family added hosting a weekly dinner with friends during Lent. Each Friday, we invited friends or family to our home for a nice meal, conversation, and games. We didn’t do it perfectly. There were a couple of weeks it didn’t work out, and isn’t that how it goes when you are trying to maintain margins? Each week, we simply start over.
When we add what matters, the margin seems to work itself out, no subtraction required.
A question for littles
What is something you love to do together you wish we would do more?
A question for former littles
Think of some of the most meaningful ways you spend your time. What do you do that gets in the way of spending time meaningfully? Do you want to spent more time alone/with friends/with family doing what is meaningful to you?
A spiritual practice
Try adding one meaningful thing to your life for the next four weeks of Lent. It could be a daily or weekly practice. Like most important things you don’t want to forget, add it to your calendar. Make that time sacred and nonnegotiable.
Lisa Lewton 