Coffee and Attachments

 Since it is a few days into Lent, sacrifices and attachments have been on my mind. I don't normally like to tell people what I give up, but my students were asking and I also kind of wanted people to hold me accountable in my sacrifice. This Lent I decided to give up coffee. I have thought about doing this for the past few years but I haven't been committed enough and I thought I was too reliant on it. I let it slip about a week before Lent during class and kind of felt obliged to do it. It has been a little rough, the first night I literally had a dream just about drinking coffee. 

I know it's bad to complain about your sacrifice and that's not what I am trying to do. What I wanted to talk about was using Lent as a starting point to push out attachments that you have in your life. This is always a time that reminds me how far I have on my journey. It should not cause me this much pain to go without coffee for 40 days. Sometimes I look at all the things that are hard for me to give up and I am given lies from the Evil One saying that it will be impossible for me to drop what I have for the Lord. He tries to use this as a barrier between the Lord and I.

We get scared to go to the Lord because we aren't perfect yet. I was reading a book called Consoling the Heart of Jesus by Fr. Michael Gaitley, and he gave an analogy about how we should be approaching the Lord with our attachments. He described it in terms of a dog and its owner. Since I had a dog that was rarely seen without a slobbery ball in her mouth, I could relate to this analogy. 

Gaitley said that when an owner is trying to get a ball from a dog, instead of just trying to go up and tug it out he is going to say nice things to the dog and bend down to his level. He will start petting him and loving on him and when the dog is not expecting it, he will grab the ball from his mouth. Like this dog that is attached to his beloved ball, the Lord calls us to Him even with our imperfections. Through His outpouring of love and grace He will slowly help us fight away these attachments keeping us from Him.

Don't wait to be perfect to run to the Lord because it will never happen. Run to Him with who you are and allow Him to help you. As it says in Mt 9:12, "those who are well have no need of a physician." The Lord came for the sick. Realize that by saying no to a cup of coffee or whatever you gave up, you are strengthening your will to say no in situations that will be much more harmful to your relationship with God.

Lent is always a good starting point to practice saying no to the comforts of this world, but it shouldn't end at Easter.  Hopefully the virtues you build will continue in your journey here on earth. I hope your Lenten promises have been going well and you have been able to see the fruit in your life.