Gay Spirituality: What to let go during the season of Lent
Thursday, 26 February 2009 20:15 Last Updated on Wednesday, 04 March 2009 19:08
Last night, I led a special meditation and prayer service to mark Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.
If you're like many gay men, any talk of religion, spirituality, God and Christian traditions brings up a lot of feelings of bad juju. Especially with last year's Proposition 8 campaign to ban gay marriage in California, you've seen the bible and the pulpit being used to condemn our very existence and the love that we share.
As a gay life coach, I've worked with gay men who've grown up with gay shame and who've tried to hide their true self in order to fit in. And mostly this is due to growing up in a household where the word of God just said it was so.
But being a gay man, you know that just because someone tells you "what is so" isn't always what really is. And you've taken the steps to start to reclaim who you really are, no matter what anyone says.
The reality for you as a gay man is this:
The process of coming out and being who you truly are is a never ending process.
And that includes reclaiming for yourself how you connect with your own spirituality. There are so many names to what we call this thing that's larger than all of us -- God, Great Spirit, the Divine, Buddha, Yahweh, Allah, the Unified Field Theory, the Universe, Love-Beauty, and the list goes on and on.In truth, it doesn't matter what we call it. I love what Emma Curtis Hopkins says. "The Good which you are seeking is your God." And you know what Good is to you. Good is love, joy, peace, perfect health, prosperity, abundance, harmony. Any Good that you seek is your God. So if using the word God doesn't work for you, then use the word "Good", or better yet, use something that resonates with you!
As you reclaim what your "Good" is and how you relate to religious traditions, I encourage you to look at ways that you can understand the meaning behind the tradition.
The season of Lent represents the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus walked through the desert. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday. Many Christians observe Lent by giving up something that doesn't serve them. Many give up chocolate, others give up alcohol, some I know are giving up technology (i.e. facebook!).
So how can you take the underlying meaning of Lent and apply it to your life, even if you aren't Christian, even if you aren't religious, or even spiritual?
As I offered during last night's meditation service, ponder these questions:
- What is one thing that doesn't serve you that you would like to release and to let go?
- What would you like to replace that with instead?
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