The Road to Character

For many years I have been challenged by the quandary of just what Lent means to me. Firstly, what should I give up and then in latter years what spiritual practise should I add to an already busy life? Somehow it was always easier to take something away!!!

If you are still wondering just what you might focus on for this year, this quote by David Brooks in ‘The Road to Character’ might give you something to think about. “We live in a society that encourages us to think about how to have a great career but leaves many of us inarticulate about how to cultivate the inner life.” -

I am part of a small group that meets weekly. While the focus of the group is to explore current biblical scholarship, I hear over and over again how the participants appreciate the chance to speak out and be heard about those things that are important in their inner life .. something many of them have never experienced before. More importantly it helps them to actually realize what it is that makes up their core values.

So yes, I agree with the above quote. We have all been encouraged to spend more time at work, to take just that one more course on our own time, to put our personal growth on the back burner for another time when it is more convenient. And of course as we get older we realize that the more convenient time is never coming. There will never be enough money, enough free time on the calendar, or enough energy. BUT in the meantime we can find the time, the money, and the energy to increase our success in our chosen career path because we have the backing, the encouragement and the expectations from the society around us to do just that.

How many people have you heard say once they have retired that they finally have time to do the things that they love, to learn to play the instrument they have always wanted to play, to attend courses at the university in subjects that have always fascinated them? I know I have heard many, and in fact have said that very thing myself. It is often in this latter stage of life that we also begin to become more aware of and articulate about our inner life, perhaps by becoming part of a small group as I have, or by stumbling on some other means of increasing awareness.

But why does it seem necessary we leave this important work until then? is the answer that no one encourages us

or seems to find that cultivating the inner life is at all important? Those of us who are regular or even sometime attendees at a church might expect encourage from that institution. However as one priest used to say half jokingly and half seriously, ‘If we do say anything to someone with whom we might happen to be sharing a pew on Sunday morning, it is most apt to be ‘How are those Blue Jays doing? It certainly wouldn’t be to inquire just where they might have encountered God in their week! Yet the second question would have led both participants into a deeper awareness of just where their inner life was. So where is there that we feel supported and encouraged to cultivate being articulate about our inner life, if not in the churches?

It seems that cultivating our inner life is left up each individual, and so it might well become not just a Lenten discipline for us, but a discipline for life as we look for and frequent those opportunities that pass our way.

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