None for Me, Thanks, I'm Running

I've given up drinking, only for this week. And my abstinence has nothing to do with alcoholism, or with Lent either. I'm staying off alcohol this week to make sure I'm in the best possible shape for the LA Marathon I'm running on Sunday, March 4 to raise money for AIDS. Click here to donate.

Giving up a vice for Lent is a common tradition but usually misses the point. The spiritually healthy reason to practice self-denial during this season is to wake up the mind from our usual routine so that we remember to keep our focus on the spiritual task at hand. People often think that the reason they should give up alcohol, or chocolate, or meat, or whatever, is so that we'll suffer and in our suffering experience the hardship of life and therefore focus on the life to come and the salvation we can achieve there. But the task of Lent is not to be miserable but to be fully alive now, because we're fully aware of the gift of life.

I don't deny that we can learn spiritual lessons through suffering, we can learn through any experience. But any spiritual lesson that requires suffering, isn't healthy spirituality. Spirituality is life-affirming, not life-denying. It is joyful and affirmative. God wants our happiness now, not just in the next life. The pleasures of life are gifts from God, and though they come with a responsibility to use wisely, entirely denying them earns no special divine credit.

My giving up drinking this week is in service to God, because it will help me have a deeper and more joyful experience during my run this Sunday. But I plan to celebrate afterward by lifting a glass with my running group in tribute to our accomplishment and to the joy of life.