Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

If you can’t have what you want, want what you can have. — Solomon Gabirol ( I also think it is a line from a Rolling Stones song.)

We are as happy and joyous as we make up our minds to be. Lent helps us frame that point-of-view. In a similar sense, we make spiritual renewal about as easy or difficult as we want it to be. If we focus on being deprived, if we view praying and going to Church as a burdensome time commitment, spiritual renewal is no less needed — just more miserable. There are better ways to be miserable.

Spiritual renewal with joy in our heart works a lot better. As the Good Book says, “When one performs a good deed, she should do so with a cheerful heart. ” And make no mistake spiritual renewal is one of the best deeds of all — we are saving our own lives.

A cheerful heart is a more willing one. The part of us that resists our Lenten discipline, the part that prefers the negative — that is the sick part. There is so much that we can have, so much that we do have. And the option to smile joyfully is one of them. If your day goes wrong, remember that you can save it — and you — with a smile.

Webb

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About the author

Webb Hubbell is the former Associate Attorney General of The United States. His novels, When Men Betray, Ginger Snaps, A Game of Inches, The Eighteenth Green, and The East End are published by Beaufort Books and are available online or at your local bookstore. When Men Betray won one of the IndieFab awards for best novel in 2014. Ginger Snaps and The Eighteenth Green won the IPPY Awards Gold Medal for best suspense/thriller. His latest, “Light of Day” will be on the bookstands soon.