Forty Days of Love For Lent. A challenge for 2024

It’s a weird confluence of events.

Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday fall on the same day this year.

Not the first time these dates have converged and likely won’t be the last.

Because conflict is click bait, media coverage has fixated on the candy clash.

It’s people giving up candy vs. the biggest candy holiday of the year!

Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent, the 40-day period before Easter during which many Christians give up indulgences like candy. Valentine’s Day, the overly commercialized celebration of love, is the largest candy-giving-and-receiving day of the year.

What will Lent-observing Christians do?

Maybe remember that love is the point of both.

“You are but dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Those words will be repeated again and again as my pastors impose ashes on the foreheads of those gathered for Ash Wednesday services. With their thumbs, they’ll draw crosses on our foreheads.

“You are but dust, and to dust you shall return.”

(There’s a butt dust joke in there, but I’ll let it pass for now.)

We came into the world with nothing, we will leave with nothing. Death is coming for all of us, eventually.

We are but dust.

Ash Wednesday remembers and anticipates the crucifixion of Jesus. The infant whose birth we anticipated only a few months ago during the season of Advent must now be put to death.

That’s how much God loves us. He sent His son to die for us. Not to condemn us but to bring us closer to Him. (John 3:16-17, if you’re wondering.)

What if we changed the Lent paradigm this year and instead of giving something up we take something on? And, what if we also celebrated Valentine’s Day for the entire season of Lent? What if we challenged ourselves to intentionally offer love to the people around us for 40 days?

We could change the world, or at least our corner of it.

And, y’all, people need love. Now more than ever.

I’ve been reading Dr. Vivek Murthy’s book, Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World. In it, the 19th Surgeon General of the United States writes about the epidemic of loneliness and its impact on our country and the world.

Overall we are a lonely people, Murthy writes, and the reasons are complex. Technology, mobility, the focus on individuality over community, and other factors have given rise to loneliness.

In another book I read about male friendships, Billy No Mates, the author quoted a 2018 Movember Foundation survey which found that one in three men have no close friends.

I expect that number has changed for the worse over the last six years.

This loneliness impacts every aspect of our lives: our health, mental health, how we perform at school and in the workplace, and how we exist in a polarized society.

“If we have no peace, it’s because we have forgotten that we belong to each other,” Mother Theresa said.

“While loneliness engenders despair and ever more isolation, togetherness raises optimism and creativity,” Murthy writes. “When people feel they belong to one another, their lives are stronger, richer, and more joyful.”

We belong to each other. 

What if we demonstrated that for the 40 days of Lent.

I’ve written often about my involvement in Man Up to Cancer, an organization that is changing the way men go through cancer. 

Imagine a community of 2,500-plus men from around the world deliberately seeking out connection, finding ways to spend time together either over Zoom or in person; offering support on social media, by FaceTime or over the phone; using words of affection and affirmation on a continuous basis.

As a member of the MUTC Leadership Team I wake up every day with one question on my mind: how can I show love and to whom? Then I look for opportunities.

To which guy can I send a text message, send a note in Facebook Messenger, call, FaceTime, send a card, or send a gift?

And ultimately, who can I tell I love them? 

I’m not alone in this. Lots of guys involved in MUTC do the same kind of outreach.

Every day.

MUTC is changing the world. One man, one connection at a time. 

If men — and men facing cancer for that matter — can do this, so can you.

For 40 days, challenge yourself to give love, find connection, offer support to another person.

Look around you.

Who haven’t you seen or heard from in a while?

Make time to check on them.

Where can you spread a little joy by committing a random act of kindness?

Make time to do it.

When was the last time you sent a card or a note?

Make time for it.

When was the last time you told someone close to you that you’re thinking about them and you love them?

Use your words.

Do it now.

“You are but dust, and to dust you shall return.”

There is no time like the present, and you never know when the last time you connect with someone might be the last time.

Forty Days of Love for Lent.

Who’s with me?