My Lent: Reading, Writing, Prayer, and No “Blog Goggles”

Lent
 
In the name of the Risen Lord, alleluia! With a mixture of awe, relief, surprise, and exuberance, the term is over and the holiday has begun. A crucified man becomes the source of all life, a dark tomb births the Light of the World. As J.R.R. Tolkien says, “No, my heart will not yet despair. Gandalf fell and has returned and is with us.”
 
My Lenten blogging break was incredibly refreshing and productive. More than anything it forced me to take off my “blog goggles” which most bloggers are familiar with. Writing a blog colors all or your actions and thoughts, and sometimes even your family time. It straps on lenses that make you see this strange and wondrous world through your blog and ask dumb questions like, “Would this make a good blog post?” or “Oh, great book! When should I review it?”
 
The problem is we rarely notice the goggles until we take them off. That’s what a break forces you to do. It allows you to enjoy the world in its purity, to experience it without broadcasting your reactions, to read books for their own sake, and to realize that your own thoughts matter far less than you believe. My challenge now is to return to blogging while leaving the goggles behind.
 
The break also helped me to buckle down in prayer, fasting, and Scripture. In the spiritual life, it’s easy to drift away from the most basic avenues toward friendship with the Risen Lord, things like personal prayer, Scripture study, and small sacrifices. They seem too simple, too basic, too common, at least to me. Before Lent I had fallen into the trap of thinking that my spiritual life was fueled by much bigger and more important activities. I thought reading complex theology or writing blog posts or engaging atheists online was a substitute for those foundational disciplines, but I was wrong. Stepping away from blogging gave me time to rededicate myself to daily prayer and Scripture. Both have allowed me to hear the Lord’s voice in newer and clearer ways and produced an extremely rich Lent.
 
Finally, the blogging break gave me time to knock out several books, as well as a big writing project. I finished reading five titles, some of which I’ll review soon, and finished writing the final draft of Book #2 (woohoo!). This morning, I sent the manuscript to its eager editors and immediately shifted my focus to Book #3.
 
I still ask myself almost every day, “what in the world am I doing writing books?” In high school I hated writing and wrote as little as possible. In college, I wrote a grand total of *one* major paper (“major” being five pages.) Even today writing is difficult, frustrating, slow, and disheartening. Some days I look at the hundreds of writers far more gifted than I and I’m tempted to just dump syrup on my keyboard and give up. What could I possibly say that someone else hasn’t said better?
 
But if Easter teaches us nothing else it’s that God brings life and light out of the darkest tombs, that even God rides to glory on a donkey.
 
None of that’s easy. Resurrection is hard and unlikely, and so is writing. But like God we must push forward anyways. We must put our head down. Do the work. Sacrifice. Hustle. Not give up. Wake up early. Stay up late. Practice our craft. Refuse doubt and fight the Resistance. It’s the only way God saved the world and it’s the only way good art rises from the muck.
 
This Lent I realized that the best gifts in the world all emerge from pain, sacrifice, struggle, and surprise.
 

So that was my Lent, how was yours? What was your biggest takeaway?