c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of RNS. She has given up writing complete sentences for Lent.)

UNDATED _ Talk about lousy timing.

The Dow breaks 10,000, Monica sells a boatload of books and the manufacturer of her interview lipstick can’t make the stuff fast enough.

Retailers are downright giddy. Movie prices are going up and no one cares. Tom Wolfe’s ode to wretched excess continues on the bestseller list.

All this during Lent, the time most people associate with sacrifice, penance and fasting.

Is there anything more counter-cultural than celebrating Lent? Could anything be more out of touch with the economic euphoria, laissez-faire values and drunken optimism of this country than a period of self-enforced repentance and sacrifice?

And what should one give up during a time when Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been surpassed by a stratospheric cacophony of desires and fantasies?

No ad agency takes up the cause of Lent, no PR engine extols its virtues. The material machine is anxious to displace 40 days of doing without with 40 days of shopping ’til you drop.

So is it time to rid ourselves of this ancient vestige?

Lent isn’t biblical, of course. Even after Jesus’ death and resurrection it took the church a couple hundred years to come up with the idea. And then it started with just a few days of fasting to prepare for the celebration marking Easter.

Then came along the Council of Nicea, that gathering of fun-loving guys who gave us such top 10 hits as the Nicene Creed, and boom, 40 days of repentance became the price everyone had to pay in order to go on the medieval Easter egg hunt.

But before those guys got ahold of it, Lent wasn’t all that bad. In fact, the name came from the Old English word for lengthen or lighten, associated with the longer daylight. In Middle English it simply meant spring, that wonderful season when the world is fresh, new and reborn.

So how about a compromise? What if we take a little from the sacrifice column and a little from the lightening column and start thinking of Lent as a time to lighten our load?

After all, this consuming frenzy is getting a little exhausting. We’ve all bought more than we will ever use, eaten out more than we should and lost track of what we even want anymore. Maybe it’s time to move in the other direction.

When Jesus went to the desert to be alone for 40 days (that’s where those Nicene guys got the 40 day idea) it was a time for him to get away from the distractions and focus on his calling. It was a time to examine his heart, to listen to his father and escape from the material world.

After the solitary time, Jesus came back to start his public ministry. He was centered and clear about his purpose. He was refreshed and renewed.

Now that’s something advertisers can work with. Don’t we all need a little focus, a little clarity, a little renewal? Couldn’t we all benefit from some time away from the relentlessness of the daily grind? Call it a vacation for the soul.

There’s still time left. Just because you didn’t blacken your forehead on Ash Wednesday you can still take part in Lent light.

Try this: Take a week or a day or an hour. Get away from the television, the family and your work. Turn off the laptop and the cell phone. Scary thought isn’t it?

Now sit still. Listen. Pray. Ask God for focus, clarity and renewal. Look back at the material world through the eyes of your soul. Think about what you really need. Think about who you really love. Think about what you really mean to be spending all that time pursuing.

Then go back. Go back with a lighter load and a clearer head. Go back and be in the world but not of it. Go back with a soul filled up and ready to celebrate Spring.

DEA END BOURKE