- Seek Ye First, Karen Lafferty
This past Wednesday marked the beginning of this year's season of Lent. Lent is a 40-day period where special attention is given to prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Abstaining from meat on Fridays is also encouraged, which means that I'm probably going to become very familiar with Safeway's seafood section over the next couple of months.
It's a Lenten tradition to give up something that one cherishes for those 40 days. Some people give up chocolate. Some people give up alcohol. I once heard of someone who gave up rice (I could do that, but it wouldn't be very fun for me). The things I've given up over the past 10 years or so have been fairly standard - Twitter, soda, Instagram, dubstep, Facebook games, etc. One year I got lazy and tried to give up negative thinking, but that didn't go so well (obviously).
One year, I decided to do something a little different. I decided to read a random passage of the Bible every night and have a brief moment of prayer/meditation. I'm really glad I made that decision because I got to discover many Scripture passages that I ponder and internalize to this day. After Lent ended, I resolved to make this Bible time something that I would do every Sunday.
This year, I decided to do something similar. I was inspired by something that cropped up on my feed, a quotation by John Chrysostom:
“No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great.”
This really spoke to me. I hadn't given much thought to what I'd give up this year, and I was ready to resign myself to giving up chocolate (I eat chocolate way way more than I should, so it actually would've been quite the commitment). But then I got to thinking, "how is giving up chocolate a service to others?" Sure, maybe I'd start eating yogurt for dessert instead, but how would that impact anyone besides myself?
So I decided that this Lent, I'd try to do one act of kindness every day. Nothing too major - just lending a brief helping hand to people that needed it. And over the past couple of days, my acts of kindness have all tended to be the same act of service.
That's where the song comes in. "Knock and the door shall be opened unto you". When I was younger I thought this line was hilarious, because I envisioned someone knocking on a door and getting smacked in the face as the door was opened unto them. I don't find it quite so funny anymore, mainly because I got smacked in the head by a swinging door in high school once. That shiz hurt.
Anyway! Being the busy college student I am, I tend to pass through a lot of doors. And the people around me, being the busy college students they are, also tend to pass through a lot of doors. And so I thought, "why don't I try to hold doors open more often?"
It's a very simple action, and it seems like something that should be more of a common courtesy. However, I've noticed that a lot of people are always rushing to get to their next destination and often breeze through doors as quickly as they can. I must admit, I'm usually one of those people. Over the past couple days, though, I've been mindful of slowing down a bit and propping open those doors.
In a more figurative sense (because I do love symbolism), holding doors open reflects how we should strive to assist people in pursuing their dreams and reaching their full potential. When we hold open doors, we help people get to their destinations. Similarly, when we hold the needs of others before our own, we help them to thrive and do good in the world. And that's what Lent should be about, yeah?
Of course, if I get the chance to something other than holding doors open, I'll gladly help in any way I can! There are so many ways to serve others that I would never be able to participate in them all. So for now, I'll stick to making tiny changes in the world - one door at a time.
