Getting a new life: Is there an app for that?

It was a year ago this month that Apple came out with its “there’s an app for that”  iPhone commercial , showing the world the variety of needs that could be met once you own your new smart phone. Since then the ad has been imitated and parodied into the ground, and some have considered it a hobby to collect examples of the many life situations for which there is the perfect app.

For example, there’s an app for people who are looking for the cleanest and closest bathroom, called, “SitOrSquat”. There’s a  Stress Free  app which can connect you to the stress-reducing exercises of mind-body healing guru Deepak Chopra. There are apps which help you to report potholes in your city directly to people who can do something about it.

Apps at their best help smart phone owners to make the right connections so they can get to where they want/need to go. Perhaps at their worst, they lull us into the illusion that there is a quick and easy answer to soothe our every ache. Now I don’t even have app capability, since my phone is of the not-quite-so-smart variety. But I still see the phenomenon as a powerful one to get us thinking about how we get what we need.

Come with me back in time long before apps… to a first century arid wasteland, where people don’t go unless they want to be alone and they’re really good at surviving outland adventures. This is where Jesus went right after he was baptized and a bunch of people could have sworn they heard God’s voice blaring out that he was God’s own Beloved Child.

Take a look at this story, imagining what it would be like to be hearing God’s affirming Voice one moment and the voice of temptation-personified the next moment… and for the next 40 days after that (Luke 4:1-13).

Whether you think of this devil character as an actual personality or just the killer tempting voice that all people live with, it doesn’t make much difference. Jesus got away to get some perspective on the choices he had to make. Was he going to go for the easy answers that the Tempter suggested? Or was he going to use God’s apps instead?

As we wander through our lives, we’ve got tough choices, too. Every once in a while we need to step back and get some perspective. You can step off of center stage and climb up to the balcony for a change: look at who you are and why you do what you do. It can be refreshing to do that. And if you’re really honest with yourself, it can be painful, too. That’s why it’s good to go on such a journey with someone else you trust, or maybe just a bunch of people who agree to reflect together.

For about 16 centuries or so, people of faith have been annually taking on a journey they’ve called Lent, which happens during the 40 days before Easter. Many have found Lent to be a deeply spiritual time of discovery and renewal.  Sometimes so-called authorities have told people they have to do certain things in Lent, and the whole thing gets messed up. Lent is not about what you should do and be. It’s what you get to do and be.

I can’t make you any easy promises, but I’m willing to bet that your Easter Day will be a whole lot more meaningful if you take some time to ponder what kind of new life needs to happen inside and around you. What might happen if you take 40 or so days to make room for God to do some spring-cleaning? Time in prayer each day, reading a book of the Bible a bit at a time, journaling, giving something up that you’re practically addicted to, volunteering at a soup kitchen or shelter… these are examples of ways people change their patterns to go on a Lenten journey.

Perhaps Lent can be for you a kind of “app” which is not handed to you on a silver platter but one that you strive to make happen. We can do this together, praying for one another, giving each other insights, walking with Jesus together along sometimes-difficult roads, knowing we are held dear as God’s Beloved as we go.

Please click on “Post a comment” below if you’re willing to share your thoughts on what Lent might be for you or anything else that comes to mind.

If you’re in the Nashua area, stop by the Crowne Plaza near exit 8 on 101A, Thursday 7pm. We’ll be digging into these themes and experiencing God’s grace together. If you’re not near Nashua but have your own discussion/prayer group you’re meeting with, please let us know here on the blog what you’re up to!

We’ll continue this journey and see together what God can do!

Peace,
Kari

(For more on Lent's possibilities, see Settling for Less by Barbara Brown Taylor.  And for some cool words on the practice of "giving something up", check out this brief piece from the sarcastic lutheran )