Lent competition

Every year someone has to criticize everyone else for not doing enough for Lent. Usually they do it by comparing and contrasting the rest of us with their own righteous selves. I just read a post on another blog in which the author knocked people who enjoy a delicious meatless meal on Fridays and noted that his Friday meals are simple: soup and a  cheese sandwich typically and apparently not all that tasty. I was supposed to be edified but instead I thought, “Well, aren’t you a little snob.”

We don’t eat meat on Fridays throughout the year but I’m not proud of it and I don’t use my penance to put anybody else down. Some Fridays we have pasta, some Fridays it’s a grilled cheese sandwich and some Fridays it’s a big ole shrimp dinner. Rocky works very hard for nine or more hours a day, six days a week. A cold cup of lentils served in a cracked cup isn't enough to keep him fueled for the day.

 

Don’t judge other people because you think their penance isn’t big enough. The woman eating a lobster roll might also be spending her Lent by sleeping on the floor or taking ice cold baths or she might even stay up all night praying for….you. The man eating a flounder with macaroni and cheese, cornbread  and a beer might be a fireman who will be carrying 190 pounds of unconscious person out of a two story building tomorrow. You just don’t know and besides I’m sure that there is someone out there who can look at Mr. Smug blogger and his sandwich and mutter “Humph! I only have water and two saltines on Fridays, you slacker!"