Day Twenty-one

I like to talk tough. I like to appear as if the little things like the meaning and purpose of life don’t really matter to me. And I certainly don’t want to give the impression that I waste any time wondering about what’s going to happen to me after I die. I mean, dead is dead, right? While it’s frowned upon as politically incorrect, the hedonistic philosophy of “eat, drink and be merry” really does seem to capture the contemporary mindset, and it’s just icing on the cake if I can confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior—even at the very last second—as a hedge against being wrong about an afterlife. So why am I even bothering with the whole Lent thing?

It’s because there has been something at the very core of my being from the very beginning that in even my most cynical moments I cannot deny. Yes, it is all about me. But “me” is not all there is! Philosophers, theologians, psychologists—thinkers of all types and ages—have variously wrestled with the reality known by different names: conscience, soul, spirit, subconscious. In metaphysical terms it is the realization that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and that somehow in the larger scheme of things this entity we have identified as “mind” is connected to and with this transcendent reality. Interestingly, we don’t even have to overtly acknowledge this reality to accept its truth.

The forty days of Lent is intended to symbolize Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness which in turn is representative of the forty years the Hebrews spent wandering in the wilderness during their exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land. The common thread throughout is what I shall, for now, refer to as the “Other” that is always present. The Hebrews were not alone in the wilderness. Jesus was not alone in the wilderness. Nor am I alone in the wilderness. Try as I might, I cannot believe that it is only “me” because I have a primal awareness of the Other. It is hard to even try to imagine Jesus saying “it’s all about me” because his awareness of the Other was intrinsic to his character. Could this have something to do with my salvation?