A reflection on how to appreciate the hard times and celebrate the good times during Lent, your volunteer year and life in general from an edition of Shared Visions from 2008.
"According to the spiritual writer, Thomas Merton, “Only the lost are saved. Only the sinner is justified. Only the dead can rise from the dead.” We experience a spiritual or personal transformation only after experiencing a “little death”—suffering or difficulties, lessons in humility, letting go of attachments. By examining the patterns in life—ups and downs, joys and sorrows—we will see that we live through a series of “little deaths” followed by renewals or “resurrections.” In daily life, we go through a series of “Good Fridays” and “Easter Sundays.” For example, as students, we experience the joy of summer only after we live through the difficulty of studying for final exams. As members of a family and a community, we experience the joy of reconciliation only after honest confrontations or conversations.
As employees, we experience the joy and satisfaction of a job well done, only after hours of hard work and sacrifice. In your time as a volunteer, your “Good Friday” experiences may be manifested in feelings of homesickness, in uncertainty about your future, or in minor tensions at work and at home. Because you are currently busy with your volunteer placement and your community, you may need to step back a bit to reflect objectively on your life as a volunteer. As Lent approaches, it is a good time to ask yourself how your experiences have changed you thus far. Individually or as a group, consider the following questions.
• Have you lived through any particularly difficult experiences in your workplace, or in your community? Consequently, have you experienced some kind of reconciliation or rebirth? Are there any difficult experiences or confrontations that you have been avoiding?
• What are your expectations of how you will feel after volunteering? Do you expect to experience a sense of joy or renewal as an outcome of your time as a volunteer? Just as we make sacrifices during Lent in order to grow spiritually, sometimes we need to make a decision to confront underlying tension, sadness, or frustration in our lives. It is likely that you will go through some sort of difficult time as a volunteer. If or when you do, we hope that it will be an opportunity for you to be reborn, to reconcile, and to be joyfully changed by your experiences."
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