I was chatting with a bloke the other day – a fellow Christian – talking about my plans for Lent.
I asked him if he had any plans too.
Looking back on it, maybe that’s a personal question. “Oh, yeah, I plan to stop choking the chicken, thanks for asking.”
So that’s one explanation for his response of… “eh, I don’t really do that”.
Apparently, the Christian tradition he followed growing up didn’t have a liturgical calendar. They celebrated Christmas and Easter, then treated every other day the same.
And my first reaction was…
So?
This is an excuse to give something up! To fight against your own sins and embrace your own virtues! Who wouldn’t want that?
Then I remembered how human nature works. I’m the weirdo here.
I dunno. Maybe I get excited by chances to be better because I’m coming from such a lowly place. Maybe I’m eager to fight sin because I have so much of it; eager to embrace virtue like a man in a desert embracing water.
If he already has his spiritual life sorted – like some sort of holy gigachad – then I can see how Lent would just be yet another 40 days.
If you’re not already enlightened to the point where you glow in the dark?
I’m running a call on Ash Wednesday for us men to hang out, enjoy some brotherhood and learn some useful skills for this time of year. And all the other times too. Specifically, you’ll learn:
- how to use an overrated mental health “technique” (associated with decreased remorse and impulse control) to pop sinful desires,
- why treating Lent as a business plan might be your best approach,
- zoning out for fun and profit,
- the neurological condition – which you can learn – that automatically brings your intentions and actions into better alignment,
- why visualisations are for suckers and what to do instead.
If any of that sounds useful – or you just want to hang out for a while – then join at the link below.