Setting Down and Picking Up

Have you ever stopped into the grocery store for just a couple of items and instead came out with a couple bags full? I walked right past the hand baskets because I did not need one – right. By the time I got through I found myself setting down what was in my arms so that I could pick up something else.

During Lent I am reminded that Jesus said if I want to follow Him, I have to deny myself pick up my cross daily. Before I pick up my cross, I have to empty my hands, just like I did in the grocery store. But Jesus was not talking about a physical cross, nor something physical to set down. In order to pick up my spiritual cross, the “cost of discipleship” – to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I have to set down – deny myself.

The spiritual exercise of Lent helps me deny myself so that I can embrace Jesus, embrace my discipleship, embrace my cross. Prayer shifts my focus onto Christ, onto discerning the will of God and setting down the will of Gary. Fasting enhances the denial of self, setting down the physical so that I can pick up the spiritual. Alms giving, second mile giving, requires sacrifice. And sacrifice makes us holy.

I think the Lenten experience is a circle of setting down and picking up. A daily denial of self and picking up my cross. Of course, this setting down and picking up happens throughout the year, but Lent provides us the space and time to find deeper meaning.

The seasons of the church also help us to set down our comfortable routines so that we can pick up and discover crosses with deeper meaning. We train ourselves to set down our possessions, our love of money, and pick up the treasure of heaven. This is our true inheritance and our true legacy.