For my first real job out of college, I worked at a
high-paced business software company. The hustle of working in the corporate world
overwhelmed me at first and the pace of the office whirled by me much faster
than any of my previous jobs (I had been making copies of cassette tapes for a
radio ministry in college, so I guess the fact that the corporate world was
faster paced than my past experience should not have been a surprise). I
reported to five different bosses with lots of individual needs. I sent out
100s of emails a day and received twice as many back. There were constant interruptions.
Everyone I worked with excelled at multi-tasking. And I eventually I got really
good at it too. I became focused. I was efficient. And I took pride in my
productivity.
I now work at a church and at busy times it is easy for me
to slip back into a highly focused and efficient mode of working. Some of my
friends at church reference this phenomenon as pulling an MK (that’s me!). I get
focused on the tasks at hand to finish (getting ready for a retreat or a big
banquet) and sometimes I’m seen as “all business” and very little fun. I still
love getting stuff done and checking work off my to-do list but my fear is that
during those times, I become so focused on the task at hand that I rush by
people and their real needs. I wonder in my dash of efficiency and productivity
if I miss out on things that are really important.
As we began Lent yesterday, it is easy to “pull an MK” and
get distracted by all the tasks that we could do during these next forty days.
In fact, most of the time when we talk about Lent, we focus on the things we will
give up. How long do we have to fast for? What we will indulge in right before
the fast begins and what we will enjoy right after the fast ends? These questions come up as we start Lent this
week. Yet, if we spend the next forty days thinking only about what we are
giving up, we will miss out on the goodness of the season. If we “pull an MK”
and rush to be efficient and productive in this season, we will miss the wonder of seeing Christ.
“’Even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return
to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.’ Rend
your heart and not your garments. Return
to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger
and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” Joel 2:12-13
During Lent, we are not invited to return to sacrifice, to
return to ritual, or even to return to church. It’s a time to return to God with our whole selves. God
is not asking us to mark off the next forty days of our life as if in a prison
cell of no chocolate and caffeine. It is our hearts and not our sacrifice that
He desires. It is us, and not the tasks
we complete that He wants. And the things that He leads us to give up (or add) during
this time are not the goal of Lent. Christ is the goal. We follow His leading of
sacrifice in order to see Him more clearly. To experience His grace and His
compassion. And to encounter our God who is slow
to anger (not rushing around trying to break us of our bad habits) and
abounding in love. In Lent we return to God with all that we have and we find
in Christ everything. So as I meet and
challenge my own desire to "pull an MK" this Lent, I pray for
all of us that in the midst of this season we will return to God with our whole
hearts and see Christ.
