Give up or Pick Up?

For many years, I've heard my friends and colleagues talk about what they were going to "give up for Lent."  Everything from Cokes to chocolate to lima beans made the list.  It took me a while to understand why one would shun something for more than a month.  It seemed more as a badge of honor that one could be so disciplined.


These days I view the period of Lent differently.  I see it as a time of preparation and renewal.  In the early Church, those last 40 days before Easter were used for intense preparation.  For a period of time, baptisms only took place on Easter morning.  Some of the candidates for baptism had prepared for a year for this day.  The last 40 days were a time of even more serious preparation.  On the Saturday night before Easter, they would go to the church and, approaching the baptismal from the west, were baptized.  They would rise facing east, at dawn on Easter morning.  They entered in darkness and rose in the light of Easter.  They gave up themselves and picked up Christ Himself.  Those who were already Christians also entered into a time of reflection and preparation, remembering their own baptisms and the life they celebrate.


So this Easter, I'm not only giving up (myself at a new depth I hope), but also seeking to put on more of Christ Himself.  I going to make the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer a regular part of my daily routine.  May we together embrace the light that Christ offers anew this year.


I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.  Amen.