Make room

On a post near the home of my maternal grandmother, legend has it that there was a charcoal drawing of a cat. It was put there by, as they were known during the Great Depression, the hobos, the transients who rode the rails and went from town to town, place to place looking for the basics: food, shelter, a job, a kindness. Hobos communicated to one another through a series of symbols and drawings. A drawing of a cat told all that a kind-hearted woman resided in the house.

A more appropriate symbol was never drawn. My grandmother embodied hospitality, a virtue in need anytime and doubly so during the Great Depression. When persons down on their luck and with ebbing pluck showed up at her door, my grandmother would put on a fresh pot of coffee, cut slices of freshly baked bread, open a jar of homemdae strawberry jam and invite the folks to table where she spoke with them, listened to them, and in doing so, restored to them a sense of their dignity.

Watching this and sitting at the table was not lost on my mother. She too had a wide and open heart of hospitality. For my mother, there was always room for one more at her table. A place setting, a delicious meal, and a non-judgemental hostess was standard procedure in our house.

Our shared society is in desperate need of reclaiming and living the virtue of hospitality. We live in a world where we are easily cut-off from each other as our electronic screens are smaller and our walls taller; it is very easy to remain separate and apart from all we would label as "other." This is detrimental to our well-being and our common welfare.

During this holy season, who can we let in?

sj;

Ready?

Now we enter the holy season of Lent. I welcome this season as an opportunity to reflect, reclaim, and renew.

Presbyterian minister and writer, Frederick Buechner (another favorite who was a great help to my seminary studies) states that the process of Jesus 40 days in the desert was Jesus trying to figure out "what it meant to be Jesus." I like it. During this season we too are given the opportunity to find out who we are and to work on becoming who we want to be. It's not an easy task, yet, I think it is a necessary one.

During Lent we tend to focus on what we are giving up --- caffeine, desserts, red meat, television, etc. I remember years ago when doing youth work, I gave up chocolate for Lent. Of course, I told everyone. That Easter was a chocolate boon for me! I received more chocolate from more people in more varieties of chocolate wonderment! It took me weeks to consume it all. Looking back, I'm not sure the non-chocolate Lent provided great spiritual strengthening and personal growth.

Yes, it's important to discipline one's self to give up something. Yet, even more importantly is to have one's behavior changed, one's self strengthened, one's life made fuller by the experience of Lent. So, this Lent, what if along with giving something up, we also take on some exercise, spiritual discipline, or practice?

It's your call. You determine what that may be. It should be something that come Easter Sunday you too feel more alive and more free and more who you are Divinely trademarked to be.

Of course, if I decide to give up, oh, say, peanut m&m's I'll be sure to let you know.

sj;