Now Quit Your Care.
Now quit your care
and anxious fear and worry;
For schemes are vain
and fretting brings no gain;
Lent calls to prayer,
to trust and dedication;
God brings new beauty nigh.
Reply, reply, reply with love to Love most high.
This is a scary world, what with wars, and diseases, and economic chaos, and random accidents, and global warming, and values and standards in flux, and culture wars, and any number of monsters under the bed to rob us of a night's sound sleep.
The discipline of Lent can help. Not giving up chocs but rather focusing for Lent on the way of discipleship taught by Jesus. Pray. Love you neighbour as yourself. Love your enemies. Forgive. Bring healing into the lives of those around you. Take time out to be quiet and still. Stand up for justice. Turn away from hatred and lust. Feed the hungry. Visit the imprisoned. Root out your own hypocrisy.
These are challenging things. They should be the lifelong work of a Christian, along with 'pick-yourself-up-and-start-again' repentance for when we fall short of Jesus' high standards of discipleship. Lent asks us to focus our efforts, to really consider how we can better follow the teaching of Jesus. Who do I know that is imprisoned that I could visit? How can I help bring healing to this world rather than hurt? How can I do this in my community? In my family? Where do I seek vengeance rather than justice? Who do I need to forgive and free myself from rancour?
The verse at the start of this article is from a Lenten hymn by Percy Dreamer (1867-1936) entitled, 'Now Quit Your Care'. The words of the hymn ask you to refocus your attention from your worries to the good you can do.
For is not this
the Fast that I have chosen?
(The prophet spoke)
to shatter ev'ry yoke,
of wickedness
the grievous bands to loosen,
oppression put to flight?
To fight, to fight, to fight till ev'ry wrong's set right?
If you determine to work for good rather than worry about what is beyond your control then gradually the world around you becomes a better place, and active love reorders your priorities in a way that brings peace to your soul. Lent is a good time for this because Lent reminds us that despite the darkness light wins in the end. The promise of Lent is the resurrection remembered on Easter Day, when we see that death does not have the last word. In Lent we can align ourselves with the love of God made known in Jesus, an eternal love that triumphed over darkness and evil. Easter Day is heaven brought forward, a glimpse of what is to come at the end of all things, a promise that faith is more powerful than fear. As Percy Dearmer asks us to sing,
To bow the head
in sackcloth and in ashes,
Or rend the soul---
such grief is not Lent's goal;
But to be led
to where God's glory flashes,
His beauty to come near.
Make clear, make clear,
make clear where truth and light appear.
Rev Stephen Gamble