On February 17-19 I received 2 messages from people I only know through social media. One sent a message through FaceBook, and one sent an email. I thought the short messages were strange but began to piece it all together when I received second messages from both individuals a few days later. I also received a brand new message from someone that I also only knew in a round-about way.
Somewhere, a number of someones, have Lent messed up in their heads and hearts. The third actually only knew me through “Hearing Elmo”. We have probably only communicated three or four times in the eighteen years since I have been blogging. It seems some sort of challenge went out to strive to make a difference in the lives of under-represented, and diverse populations. Notes of encouragement, secret gifts, and words of affirmation were supposedly the goal in brightening the life of a person different than you.
I may be different than you, but y’all? I am plenty BRIGHT. There is just so much wrong with this way of thinking. Let me start with the obvious.
What is Lent?
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends before Easter Sunday. Lent is all about doing WITHOUT. In choosing a sacrifice of some sort, an individual may concentrate on other things that they do not normally spend time doing. Things like meditation, prayer, self-examination, and much more. One can choose to observe Lent by doing without food like Jesus did in His own 40 day fast detailed in three of the gospels (Mark 1:13; Matthew 4:1–11; Luke 4:1–13). In today’s world Lent has become a sacrifice of perhaps “unhealthy foods”, things high in sugar, starches, or choosing to go “alcohol free”. One can also choose to examine what you spend a lot of your life doing and “fasting” from that during Lent. Perhaps that is watching television, or spending time on FaceBook or YouTube. You do not simply “do without”, you replace it with these life-changing new habits. At the end of Lent you may go back to some of things you choose to “do without”, only perhaps with a new mindset and new appreciation for quiet, reflective, purposeful thinking.
What Lent is NOT
Lent is not:
- Revealing the underlying and unacknowledged level of PRIVILEGE you have.
- Choosing someone to “bless” – someone with whom you never interact with at any other time of year.
- Dehumanizing another by making them your project. (A project denotes something that needs work or fixed)
- Assuming that your “new focus” is welcomed or necessary for a person you have determined is “in need”.
The fact that one individual who set out to “bless someone who is disabled” (revealed in a flurry of Q&A emails with me trying to determine WHAT THE HECK?) did so by finding me and my email address through this blog. I would love to put it out there for anyone who needs the message that…
I’m OK exactly the way I am.
Oh sure! Like anyone, people with disability, invisible conditions, or other challenges, may certainly appreciate genuine, heartfelt encouragement and affirmation from individuals who have a RELATIONSHIP with us. However, that boost is not given because we have a disability. It’s given because someone loves us and cares about us. It is provided by way of a positive relationship being lived out. Just as unsolicited advice is not welcome from someone you hardly know, unsolicited “feel good messages” are also not welcome.
Please understand that I am not saying you should not do nice things for other people. I simply ask that you be genuine about it. Please don’t make them a project.
L. Denise Portis
L. Denise Portis, Ph.D.
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