There Is Always Room For Improvement

Speaking to a book club, a member asked, “What is the best lesson you learned from playing football?”

Well, that’s a tough question, but one answer is what I heard after every game or practice:

“Men, there’s plenty of room for improvement.”

So, when I’m asked why I observe Lent and why do I emphasize its four pillars — sacrifice, prayer, meditation and study, and service, I answer:

“There’s always room for improvement.”

Our ability to bring peace in the world and with our neighbors depends on our capacity to make peace with ourselves. During Lent we develop a routine that enables us to bring harmony out of conflict about our feelings, our perceptions, and our mental and spiritual state. There is nothing easy about a Lenten discipline, but it brings peace within, and it makes peace in our world and the whole world a real possibility.

Besides, even if you aren’t successful, “There was room for improvement.”

PS: Today’s Meditation is my submission to St. John’s Lafayette Square’s Pathways to Lent at https://stjohnsdc.wordpress.com. Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Luis Leon and The Reverend D. Andrew Olivo for including me again this year. It is a real honor.

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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.