Never Give Up

I – as I am sure, many of you – have been watching the Olympics when I can. I enjoy watching the competitions, but I enjoy even more the stories that go with each athlete that may be featured.  The Olympics are amazing to see in the first place. 

We see all the athletes who come from so many countries, each of them at this particular place at this particular time, because they have worked hard and made many sacrifices.  It must be quite interesting to watch one another compete, but also to find new friendships, showing respect and even admiration for one another, in that Olympic village. 

I was watching as one of the Luge participants who won a medal was interviewed.  His joy was contagious as he shared his feelings; but more than that, his advice to everyone was to “never give up.” Simple advice that I am sure took much courage, hard work and hope for him.  I was thinking this is also such good advice for Lent.

Hope can be a fragile, elusive emotion. Hardly a day goes by when we don’t hope for something. But who among us hasn’t seen our hopes easily dashed? This can happen in an instant with the Olympic competitors and also with our hopes during Lent for becoming a better person of God. 

But without hope, we would be living in a dark world – perhaps even questioning our faith.  Hope is the root of our Christian beliefs; it won’t disappear if we don’t allow it to.  It will be there calling us to open the “eyes of our hearts,” and then we will know the promise of hope is one of Christ’s greatest gifts to us.

Each year as Lent approaches, my thoughts always go back to when I was young and we had to make that hard decision for what we would “give up.”  This was really hard for us at a young age and even harder to keep during those long weeks of Lent.  I remember how bad I felt when I forget and ate that candy, chewed that gum or had that soda by accident.  I had to confess that and then try so hard not to repeat the mistake again during Lent!  But I never gave up on that decision made at the beginning of Lent.  I truly felt I had accomplished something that God would be happy with – especially since I had done it at this young age.

As I got older and now even today, I am aware of how precious time is in my life; so I switched to doing something extra during Lent. This decision was even harder at times than giving up that candy!  We learn so much about ourselves when we make a decision to do something extra. 

Some Lents, I would have extra Rosary time; sometimes it was more prayer time or spiritual reading.  Sometimes it is attending Mass more often during the week, or going to a Way of the Cross service.  There are many choices, and we have to pick what we feel makes us feel closer to God. 

I alsomwant to make sure I am focusing on the sacrifice and suffering that Jesus endured for each of us.  Every day during Lent, we should try to make headway with our choice to grow in our relationship with God. I have found it is not always easy, but we should “never give up” because God certainly does not give up on us.

So as we cheer on these hard-working and gifted Olympic athletes, let us also never forget to have hope in what Lent can give us – to “never give up” on what we can accomplish in our faith lives because our reward will be eternal life with our God.