For Orthodox Christians, Lent is a time to look at all the things that keep them from loving God and neighbor as they were made to do. It’s a time to see, identify, and as much as possible remove the shackles that keep them bound to and focused on themselves first and only, inward looking rather than outward as they were created to do. The world isn’t here purely for my consumption and pleasure (though creation is filled with beauty and deliciousness and yes, even fun), but as a means to connect, to serve, to love.
One way to get at this is restricting both content and amount of what they eat, in other words, fasting. Another is by increasing the amount of prayer, both private and a group setting (worship). A third is to take action to show love to neighbor, to someone in need, to whoever happens to be there in your orbit at the moment.
One way I am acting this Lent is to write. I still think that a person, using and sharing the gifts he or she has been given, is another way to look and act outward. For me, one way to do that is to write.
Just as not serving, not loving, not loving when and how it’s needed, when the opportunity presents itself is self-serving (what Christians call sin), not writing, when I have the chance and inclination and, I suppose, the ability to do it is also selfish, inward focused, missing the goal I’ve been given by God. And so comes Lent, a time to find and break the chains I’ve accepted that keep me from doing the good I have been made to do. And one of those good things, for me, is writing.
