Ash Wednesday & artistic Lent

Ash Wednesday again. Tomorrow begins the season of Lent. What does this mean for those of us who are observers of Lent? Some will undoubtedly engage in the competition to "give up" something for Lent. Some will "take up something" in resistance to the tradition of giving up something. Some will look at the "givers" and the "takers" with much amusement and wonder how any of that will help in our spiritual journey.

For the 2009 Lenten season, the Lenten Meditations created by Episcopal Relief & Development will focus on the Millennium Development Goals Inspiration Fund, which focuses on three of the MDGs (goals 4, 5, and 6). "Lent offers us the opportunity to reflect on our lives, our neighbors and our world." Indeed, as we each think about our own lives, our own families, and our own faith communities, we must also remember to think about and pray for and take action with our neighbors in need.

Short version of the MDGs:
1) Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2) Achieve universal primary education for children
3) Promote gender equality and empower women
4) Reduce child mortality
5) Improve maternal health
6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7) Ensure environmental sustainability
8) Create a global partnership for development

In 2000, the international community developed the MDGs to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by the year 2015. We are in year 2009, and very far from reaching our goals. For this Lent, I can give up all the chocolate in the world and it wouldn't make that much of a difference to the people around me, unless the money I would have spent on chocolate is put to some good use (e.g. contributed to a fund or program or organization like Episcopal Relief & Development to help buy insecticide-treated nets to prevent malaria).

A good friend has invited me to join her in an artistic observance of Lent. For the 40 days of the season (excluding Sundays), we are invited to create/develop/build a small art or writing project -- whatever inspires us and revitalizes our creativity. Since I haven't done anything artsy for a long while, I'm tempted to accept her invitation, with a bit of a twist, actually. I'm going to focus the art on the MDGs. Let's see where the Spirit takes us during this season!!

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing." - Luke 10:41