Being Content During Lent

Keep your lives free from the love of money
and be content with what you have. Hebrews 13:5

In the traditional yoga sacred writings we find the spiritual guidelines called the NIYAMAS. One of these niyamas is SANTOSHA- the art of contentment, feeling at ease, at peace with ourselves.

I saw a cartoon once that featured an old man standing with his son in front of an open garage door. The garage was piled high to the ceiling, full of a lifetime of accumulated junk. The man was saying, “One day son, this will all be yours.” One thing I know for sure, my kids don’t want my stuff!

So why do we spend our lives
longing for,
accumulating,
buying,
arranging,
storing,
cleaning,
rearranging,
and moving
our stuff?

It requires so much of our time and energy just to maintain it all. This cartoon featuring the stuffed garage gave me an idea. Heading into the home stretch for Lent can I begin an accumulation fast? Can I challenge myself to stay off of Amazon for the next couple of weeks? Can I limit my purchases to the bare necessities, buying only what I absolutely need? Fasting comes in all forms, and fasting from accumulating sounds like something that might do me some good (see the picture of one of my closets below). I would personally hope to learn to be more content, to learn to be happy with what I have. To be thankful. And to share what I have with those in need.

Lent is hard, but oh, so good.

Psalm 34:10b Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Philippians 4:11-13 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

2 Cor. 12:9-10 “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” …Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”