Politics and Lent

Having a year to sit and reflect on the daily news and controversies, I have begun to notice an ugliness creeping up inside of me.  I don’t like that I’ve been getting a bit of a high from arguing with people and taking pride in my ability to articulate contradictions and ironies.

One of my favorite things has been to quote scriptures that point out the hypocrisy of so-called Christians who use their misinterpretations of the bible to spread hate and support the current regime.

This is what I’ve given up for Lent.  It’s been much harder than the year I gave up social media.  It’s been much harder than the year I gave up sugar.  I catch myself in the middle of a Facebook post, raging about the FAA or anti-vaxxers.  Then I have to decide which is more important to me, my commitment to my faith, or demonstrating my ability to devastate with my words.  What would Jesus do?

I honestly don’t know what Jesus would do.  I suppose if  He’d made a commitment to God, he’d keep it.  I know that having backed off on several almost-posts, and bowed out of one discussion that was starting to heat up, I feel better in my gut.  While I believe that the majority of the things about which I get passionate are topics that Jesus would also have taken issue with, I don’t think he’d have taken as much pleasure in making people feel outgunned.  Basically, I’m realizing that I’m an arrogant ass.

Trying to give that up for Lent.