Give It Up!

Protestants are not big on Ash Wednesday. Or at least, the Presbyterian tradition in which I was raised and now serve, has never done a whole lot with it.  Long Island, where I currently reside, is predominantly Roman Catholic and thus the religious rituals observed on this day in the liturgical calendar are variously embraced, maligned, or ignored by other local Christian congregations.  The latter is the most common within my own community, although my Presbyterian colleagues express any range of responses from theirs.

So while many in ministry work on this day, it is, like any Wednesday in the calendar year, a Sabbath day for me.  I decided many years ago to take Wednesdays as my holy day.  My day of rest.  And so here I am, at home, not "working," pondering what I'm going to give up this year.

Protestants are also not big on giving things up for Lent.  That whole sacrificial ethos is not one that we particularly care for.  A people of the empty cross, we'd rather celebrate the resurrection than go through the death, much less acknowledge pain/suffering/sacrifice or choose to go through any of our own accord.  The Good Friday service is one of the most beautiful and meaningful that we hold at Sweet Hollow, but also the least well-attended - some years we've barely made it into double digits not including the choir.

So giving up something.  Should it be something physical, tangible like sugar or meat?  Should it be a behavior like slothfulness?  Or should be an attitude like anger or fear?  Those things would all be choices that would be "good" for me - leading me to eat more healthily, work out more regularly, better manage my emotions, etc.  Perhaps should it be something that I will really miss, something that is truly sacrificial, like reading or playing Candy Crush?

I don't even like to write about these options.  I shudder when I think about putting those two words together: "Give" and "Up."  When I think of giving something up, it makes me anxious, no matter what it is - even if I know that it will have positive benefits.

Yet it's kind of interesting seeing those two words capitalized and separate.  Give and Up.  I DO like Giving things.  I enjoy giving gifts to my daughter, my friends, my parishioners, those in need.  I get a charge out of buying lunch for a colleague, or sending a C.A.R.E. package to Grace or one of her friends who are away at school, or participating in the Souper Bowl Challenge feeding hungry people in Huntington.  And the word "Up" implies God to me - the Presence that we instinctively look upward toward.

Perhaps what I could do for Lent this year is Give my day Up to God.  Every morning.  Start each day intentionally (and perhaps even with words and physical movement) giving it up to God.  It's probably impossible.  I'll probably fail mightily.  But it's an idea my Presbyterian soul could get behind.  One Day at a Time.  I may not even have to take Sundays off from it, like I did when I gave up meat a few years ago!