Yesterday, was February 14th 2024 when the Lent season began. Lent is the ancient season of preparation that followers of Jesus of Nazareth traditionally use, to prepare for the most Holy Week of the year, that being Easter. Lent is a disruptive idea. In modern life any demarcated season that carves out time for anything other than work or pleasure, is a disruptive idea.
Reserving a season of preparation segments time. In a world that creates one indistinct blur, Lent is a category that can be used to understand how we can approach time differently. We won’t delve into the details of how to do Lent, but rather the spirit of what a practice such as Lent offers those willing to take advantage of it.
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Few people are known to have created a rhythm of life that is intrinsically nourishing to their souls. Few know how to create such a life. Few are taught and even fewer know where to seek such wisdom. Ancient practices such as Lent, have long been discarded and discredited by suspicious Protestant denominations of Christianity. Previous generations threw away ancient practices due to poor, partial or prejudiced theology. Why they did this, is for future essay.
What is of interest to us here, is to ask the basic yet powerful question, “what do you use to structure your time?”
Here we are not referring to time tracking tools such as a planner, calendar, diary or a to-do list. We are referring to the guiding premise you use to live intentionally and structure or “spend” your time. All those diary appointments occur out of your priorities and thus reveal how you schedule your time. The revelation of how you spend your time is a revelation of your deepest beliefs.
Depending on which stage of life you find yourself in, how you spend time will vary. If you are a parent to school going children, the school year with its own calendar, becomes the structuring force on your life. If you are a business owner, it might be bi-monthly VAT submissions and monthly payroll, or as a senior executive it could be financial year end and accompanying audits. I remember as a child, we could never visit an uncle of ours in February, due to end of year financials – as that was his “busy season”. These are all external obligations that structure one’s time and life.
Then there are common structures that affect every person in the communal society we live in, an example being, the 30 day pay cycle, with its associated monthly debit orders. In South Africa, everyone shuts down on the 16th of December in preparation for end of year Christmas celebrations. “Woza December” is an unofficial South African motto – where no expectations of professional commitments can reliably be made, nor expected to be fulfilled – it is how South African life has been crafted, intentionally or otherwise.
What I have always respected about practising Muslims, since my school days, was their commitment to their Friday afternoon prayers. They would literally stop what they doing, leave school, go to Mosque and pray, without fail. Not knowing much more than that as a kid, I always understood them to get a free Friday afternoon, even though they returned to school (the returning part I never understood).
Now in professional life, that same practice continues and no one even lifts an eyebrow in our various workplaces. No matter what level of hierarchy they are in, from Board meetings to sale calls, such unavailability from this community is totally accepted, moreover, it is expected. Agendas and appointments will be rearranged around the requirement of a Muslim professional who will be leaving for Friday afternoon prayers.
I always admired this taking a stand on a position of principle;
“Yes we all have that big test on Friday” – “I won’t be available”
“Yes there is a critically important Board meeting on Friday” – “I need to leave early”
What chutzspa. Very ballsy.
If you are a practising Muslim, you pray on Fridays. Full stop.
A prior decision about one’s life was taken and that meant something. It placed a requirement on their time and it was not negotiable. The initial decision had a consequence to how time was to be spent, and unsurprisingly the world bends around the person whose mind is made up.
Without intentionality, your time is arranged, allotted and spent for you.
Despite studying philosophy, I did not fully realise that you must intentionally arrange and allot your time. Without making decisions regarding your time, it will be committed by others, and not for your good. You will find yourself obliged to pay those commitments that are most likely not your highest priorities... with years of your life.
Growing up in the nominally Christian country of South Africa, Easter with its Good Friday and Holy Monday being public holidays, makes for a wonderful long weekend. It seems a long weekend is the ultimate purpose of Easter for the majority of children and adults that are so poorly catechised in their proclaimed faith. Without any further explanation of the reasoning of why, how and what is the behind this designated time cordoned off as a public holiday. Most are left to their own interpretations, and it is in the interpretation that the devils live.
Until after my conversion when I sought better interpretations, Easter was just a long weekend with no further meaning. To my surprise it would arrive unannounced and if it wasn’t for the chocolate eggs and bunnies, I would have missed it for many years. Tired of gorging on chocolate and frustrated with the lack of alignment between what I supposedly believed and how I lived, something had to change.
Arriving at Easter because Friday was a public holiday just did not suit my soul any longer. The entire weekend was over before I knew it. This was hardly a reverent or devout way to live, nor was Easter the most Holy Week of my year. The lack of preparation is evident and frustrating when the pastor’s sermons on either week of Easter have absolutely nothing to do with the central purpose of one’s religion. Although to be fair, on Easter Sunday morning the church met on a koppie to watch the sun rise and tepidly read some scripture to commemorate this most holy of days, but that was pretty much it. There was no reverence, no devotion, something was missing. The most important event in this religious practice of mine, had no climatic moment, nothing to look toward, or to draw upon afterwards throughout the year. It left as quickly as it arrived, leaving only frustration. Which led me to investigating and appreciating the insight that one’s religion or highest belief, must structure how you spend your time otherwise it is; a) a deficient religion or b) you do not take it seriously. When I took mine seriously I made a startling discovery.
That which structures your time is your religion
Lent is a division of time, it is a season of time marked as one of preparation and it requires intentionality. Seasons of Preparation such as Lent, provide a structure to approach important milestones in one’s year, such as the Holy week of Easter. Very few things in life do not require preparation, and the quality difference is usually evident. There is a real difference between well prepared food that nourishes compared to fast food that simply satiates your hunger.
Moreover seasons of preparation require something, in order for you to to participate. It is not free and requires something if you are to worthily participate.This probably speaks to my masculine heart, but if something is so fundamental to my existence, then surely it should require something of me. The lack of any requirement, means it isn’t worth defending, never mind doing. Herein, we find the value of ancient Christian practices such as Lent. They require something more, from he who participates, above and beyond obligatory commitments such as showing up at work, or the countless other external structures that govern our modern lives.
Lent, as all seasons of preparation do, requires three very important things: a decision, an action and in the case of Lent, usually the fasting of a food. If you do not decide to observe Lent, it will not happen in your life. If you do not follow through with actions, supporting your decision then the season will pass you by. If I do not participate in its practices, such as fasting, then it does not happen.
This is the same for all that matters in life – you have to show up and do the work
Seasons of preparation focus individuals on something greater than themselves. That is, the preparation season has as its ultimate end the achievement of something else, something higher. However, just because a process has an end, does not negate the value of the process itself.
The preparation for a journey provides as much excitement and anticipation as the departure day itself, as does reaching the destination. It is the same for the years of study in preparation for graduation day. Although the objective is the graduation day when the degree is conferred with all its accoutrements, very few people reference that single day of graduation alone. Usually, stories of student years are used to regale others, not of the graduation day itself.
Weeks or years defined as a season of preparation provide much life. In joy and sadness, they were worthwhile in and of themselves, even if they are not the ultimate end. Such is the value of seasons of preparation such as Lent.
I remember the first time I excused myself from a Board meeting on Holy Thursday (the day before Good Friday). “Excuse me Chairperson, I need to be excused as to prepare for the Holiest days of the year.” It was very disruptive - so many feelings abounded. Dread at missing important decisions, horror at dishonouring fiduciary duties (even though the meeting overran by 90 minutes).
Worth repeating; Work knows no boundaries and spends one’s life without remorse.
Yet, as I reflect on that small moment, something occurred to me - I had placed my fiduciary duties in their proper place. The meeting had its appointed time and overran. My decision to excuse myself was not made in the meeting, it had been made prior to the start of the meeting. It had been made 6 weeks earlier when I had decided to do Lent as part of my religion.
Good, true and proper religion structures life so that every aspect has its appointed place, its allotted time. This intentionality creates healthy boundaries, a peaceful and well ordered life.
In closing, there are consequences to how we schedule and manage our time and in how we prepare or don not prepare for things that are important to us.
How do you structure your time? Perhaps a better question is:
What do you use to structure your time?
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