Lent: A time to be our real selves
In an age when our success is measured by material things, Lent is a good time to reflect on our own worth and opt out of the competition for acclamation, argues Anthony Gathambiri IMC.
BY ANTHONY GATHAMBIRI IMC
Lent is well underway! Do you feel it? What a moment! It is a time that should not leave us unchanged, but make us better people. We have to celebrate Lent, not “observe it”. It is a time to eliminate those things that make us not look like disciples of Christ. It’s a time to eradicate what hinders us from being authentic. We can only be authentic Christians if we first work on our own selves. Lent is a moment to model ourselves on Jesus. It is a time to follow Jesus more closely, as his followers.
John Mason, in his book Imitation is Limitation, tells us that the more you are like Jesus, the more you become what you are supposed to be. God does not demand from us to be the best preacher in the world or the best doctor, as though we are in a contest. He wants us to just be what he created us to be. Our only job here on earth is to express who we really are. If you are Anthony, just be Anthony, and not Peterson or Daniel. You can never become them, anyway.
Every human being is born unique, an original. Lent should be a time to remind ourselves that we are original, and not imitations. We should boldly say: “I am original,” and working on our own particular gifts. Nobody is a replica of another. Out of the seven billion people in the world, no one has the same finger prints, not even identical twins.
It’s upon us to use this moment of grace to go back to within ourselves and discover our strengths and weaknesses, so that we can work on them. Each of us has untapped strengths that could improve our world.
If people only knew how rich they were, they would spend days and nights trying to discover that treasure. And all of us have that hidden treasure within us, waiting to be discovered.
Try to discover and work on that gift of, for example, reconciling people, or of being able to make people feel at home in any place, or of public speaking.
The journey of reclaiming our true identity is not that easy. It requires of us to keep reflecting on how we are doing things. We need to say mea culpa and beat our breasts thrice when we try to live other people’s lives.
These days, an individual’s success in life is measured by their car, whether they have the latest laptop, a lovely house, and also by their educational accomplishments. This causes much unhealthy competition among people.
We need to take our eyes off others and spend some time with Jesus in this season of Lent. We need to ask him for grace to help us believe in ourselves, because we are created for a purpose.
During Lent, we need to go the extra miles in prayer, asking God to show us our purpose of being on earth. It’s through this that we may shun that habit of imitating others.
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