Let's Engage in New Thought (LENT) 

By Rev. Lyle Schlundt

You know that Spring is just around the bend when we approach the season of Lent. I recall growing up in my Catholic tradition of eating a lot of red meat on " Shrove Tuesday" or Mardi Gras to some. The next day, Ash Wednesday, I would receive ashes on my forehead to remind me that "Remember, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return." It was a time of 40 weekdays of repentance, fasting and contemplating on my sins, asking for forgiveness. It was the beginning of the journey to Easter. 

I recall as a chaplain working in the hospital, I would have to put on my clerical collar (one of the few times during the year I would wear my "priestly collar"), and offer ashes to those in the hospital that wanted them. This was an important ritual for many people. I provided the ritual of ashes for them to honor their faith tradition. 

In New Thought, we recognize that, as humans, we are relational beings and have ritual and symbol structure in our daily lives. Who reading this "needs" their morning ritual of coffee, prayer, or whatever it is that we "need" to do before we get our day started? For those of us that have pets, specifically dogs, morning begins with letting them outside, whether it is a walk or letting them out in the fenced in yard. 

Specifically to our tradition in New Thought, we acknowledge that this is indeed an "adventure", much like Rev. Sandra mentioned a few weeks ago in talking about Advent. Whether you focus your energy on the themes of Lent being "not being ambivalent" about what life is all about; to seeing life as "opulent" or of "plenty" ; or perhaps a time of going within and becoming "silent", becoming more "lentic" or being in still waters; or becoming more "lucelent", becoming more transparently clear as to who you are and manifesting that awareness in your daily life. 

I have offered many concepts having the words "lent" contained within them, but what I want to invite you to take away from this reading is that this is a process, however you have it ritualized in your life, to go within, see where your life has been muddied, unclear, forgotten, or stymied in any way, to the awareness of that Christ presence that is within you. 

In New Thought, "40" represents the journey; it takes as long as it takes on the journey. Journey to where? To the realization of your True Self. Your Christ self. In Unity, we speak of "going to that Upper Room, the holy of Holies, where our True Nature resides. And it is from this higher consciousness that we practice affirmative prayer. It is from that place that we realize and experience the Heaven. It is from this awareness that we see that "there is only One Presence and Power, God, the Omnipotent Good." 

Lenten time is an invitation to see what has gotten in our way of seeing, realizing, or manifesting this reality in our daily lives. We don't stop at the Crucifixion, for we are an "Easter" people. We are a people that share that Good News- all of creation was created out of Good, for Good. This inexplicable realization of the love of the Universe to be opulently showered upon all of It's creation. Jesus, the Great Wayshower, shared this good news to all that would hear. Showed to all that would see this reality being born into their lives. 

As we journey on into this Lenten season, these 40 weekdays, let us become aware of where we have not seen the fullness of this Truth, felt this Truth, or manifested this Truth in our lives, and experience the Easter awareness, the ascension of our consciousness to a Christ Consciousness.