Practice Makes Perfect?
{Jesus said:} “...when you do acts of charity, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing;...” — Matthew 6:3a.
My late Father, a teacher, was fond of the Latin phrase: “Repetitio est mater studiorum.” This is often translated as “practice makes perfect” but that’s not what it means. It means: “Repetition is the mother of learning,” which is the way my late Father understood it.
My experience is practice does make perfect but it is not my experience that repetition is the mother of learning, my Father’s understandings to the contrary. My experience is repetition, for its own sake, fosters more repetition. And repetition often begets those quite unwanted surrogates: drudgery and boredom.
Now, we are entering the season of Lent. A populist theme often associated with Lent is giving something up. (I suspect chocolate is the number one candidate to take a hit.)
My advice? Don’t do it. Give nothing up. Why? Giving something up for Lent makes as much sense as repetition for the sake of repetition. It begins to feel like drudgery in short order.
Besides, is Lent about self-depravation? Or is Lent about coming to a better sense of self realization because of what God has done in Christ, Jesus?
Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun and author says this: “Lent is not a ‘penitential season.’ Lent is a ‘growing season.’”
I am hard pressed to think we can enter into a ‘growing season’ without finding ways to grow. Again, my experience is growth means doing something, adding something, not subtracting anything.
As Jesus implies, charity— real charity— consists of doing, nothing else— not self aggrandizement, not ego trips, not trying to look better than anyone else. Further, practicing charity can be simply and as much as a change in attitude as it is anything else. Here’s a list I found with some suggestions and ways to pursue growth. And, paradoxically, each phrase starts with the words “give up.”
Give up complaining— focus on gratitude. Give up pessimism, focusing on the shadows of the clouds— become an optimist and focus on the light which shows through the clouds.
Give up pettiness— strive toward maturity. Give up gloominess— enjoy the God given beauty all around us. Give up jealousy— pray for generosity. Give up gossip— confront facts. Give up practices which destroy self— turn to virtue. Give up giving up— hang in there, persevere.
Give up harshness— think kindness. Give up worrying— trust God. Give up discouragement— be full of hope.
Give up bitterness— turn to forgiveness. Give up negativism— be positive. Give up anger— practice patient.
In short, do charity. All of which is to say, Lent is a growing season, if and when we allow for that. Amen.
02/17/2010
Service on Ash Wednesday Evening 5:15 p.m.
Held at Christ Lutheran Church in Conjunction with
The United Church of Christ, First Congregational,
The Broad Street United Methodist Church and
The First Baptist Church, All of Norwich, NY Participating
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