Lent and Laughter
“So how’s that workin’ for you?” cackles AdventureMan, on a roll. He is totally cracking himself up.
“Hey, where’s your wife, AdventureMan?” he goes on, his high story-telling voice as he goes on making up stories. “Oh, I had to send her back to the Us of A for cursing in the car during Lent.”
He is not even listening. He is on a roll. Oh, he thinks he is so funny.
Today is the first day of Great Lent, our 40 day season of repentance and looking inward, fasting and spiritual examination. AdventureMan has asked what sacrifice I will make, and I had just said that last year, giving up swearing in the car, one word in particular, while I was driving had been a real struggle, but that I had actually managed, mostly. Not perfectly, but mostly.
“This year,” I told him, “I am going to practice turning the other cheek, I am going to try to be a peaceful spirit on the road, I am raising the bar.”
That’s when he started cracking up. There was no stopping him.
He had already told me he is giving up liver and brains and kidneys for Lent, all foods he stays far away from anyway. AdventureMan doesn’t take sacrificing for Lent very seriously. “I’m going to fast the way Little Diamond describes in her blog, you know, like the Maronites,” he giggles, barely able to talk, “only instead of fasting from midnight to noon, I will fast from ten at night until ten in the morning!”
He is laughing so hard he can hardly hear me.
“That’s not a sacrifice!” I argue! “You are sleeping most of that time, and you don’t eat breakfast anyway! That’s not a sacrifice!”
‘You worry about YOUR sacrifices and I will worry about mine!” he says, and I know he is right.
The truth is, AdventureMan sacrifices every day of his life. He works hard to provide a good life for his family. He sacrifices his time and energy every single day. He goes to church with me willingly, he prays with me every morning. It’s enough.
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You gave me such a laugh. I can just see AM in his own personal comedy routine–maybe because the same one would be played out in my house. I haven’t done a Lenten pledge in a long time but feel moved to do one this year. I’ll pray for your strength if you pray for mine.
Yes dear friend, of course. Let me know your challenge.
happy lent!
or whatever the appropriate greeting may be.
and good luck with your sacrifice! but just like adventureman you’ll have to forgive me for cracking up 😛
but if anyone can do it i’m sure it’ll be you xpatr.
AdventureMan sounds like an ideal male person. I want to be like him when I grow up 🙂
I’m not observing lent, simply because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. Hopefully, I’ll learn about it and will observe it (with a willing heart)
Hahahahahahahah, Skunk! Have I ever told you, I think we are related? You have exactly the same sense of humor as my husband and my son. NO reverence!
(I don’t think we have a greeting particular to Lent. Nothing like Ramadan kareem!)
You have the right spirit, Joel, it comes from the heart. Maybe make it a point to do some bible reading during the next 39 days, a small sacrifice of your time. By the way, AdventureMan, like me, is severely flawed, not perfect. It’s a cool thing about being married; you have someone to work with toward becoming better people.
lol ! While i grew up we were told to fast on every friday and while fasting we could have breakfast , and then could drink juice anytime( coffee at times ) and still we were so hungry and upset. It is only when i came to Kuwait observing muslims during Ramadan i realised how foolish we were ( still are ).
Also ! during lent some of the ‘hardcore fanatics’ would grow beard , skip meat and alchohol and even better skip sex for 40 days .. and on easter day you find a lot of Christians in my village lay drunk on the streets as early as 9 am in the morning.
LOVE IT 🙂 especially the spot-on use of “how’s that workin’ for you?” 🙂 🙂 🙂
I wish you both a blessed Lent, khalti, and admire you for the strength it takes to turn the other cheek!
We don’t have a Lent greeting in English, although in Arabic you can say “sawm mubarek”, blessed fast.”Lent” in English comes from an old word meaning “spring”, in the sense of increasing daytime light, and “sawm” means “fast”, so its not precisely the same, but … it might work 🙂
Thank you, Little Diamond. I need for you to come make sure I am not swearing in the car while I am driving. 😉