An Acceptable Time!

An Acceptable Time!

It seems like every time I answer the phone I get the quick query, “Is this a good time?” I have even heard the sentence (actually more than once), “I just called to set a time for a phone conversation.” My baser self wanted to say, “Well, since you already interrupted me, how about right now?”

I know that these questions come from a desire not to be a bother, not to break in, or to allow me to say, “Can we talk later?”

At the beginning of this Lent, I would love to make a list of people I could call to see if it was a good time to talk. I would like to talk to the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate to ask them why they can’t get anything done. I would like to talk to each one of the presidential candidates and ask them–heart to heart–how he or she would really govern should victory be garnered.

I would really like to have a conversation with the head of the National Rifle Association to find out why owning a gun is an absolute value and inalienable right but having access to health care or clean water or safe streets is not. Maybe I could dial up a Wall Street banker and corporate titan to find out why they need more tax breaks than their gardeners or chauffeurs.

I would like to spend some time on the phone with a prison warden to chat about why the prison population is predominately minority or why the death penalty is not cruel and unusual punishment. Maybe one or more radical Muslim leader could tell me why I am inherently evil. I wish I had the chance to call up a domestic or international terrorist to find out how slaughtering the innocent advances their causes whatever those causes may be.

I suppose that the list could go on and on, but I think in the spirit of the season, the first person I need to have a chat with is me!

I am not headed out to the desert for a forty-day stint. I need, however, to find a quiet corner to ask me if now is a good time to talk. I want to reflect on the words of Saint Paul that are a clarion call every Lent:

Working together, then
 we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says:
In an acceptable time I heard you,
and on the day of salvation I helped you.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time;
behold, now is the day of salvation.
Corinthians 6:1-2

Instead of making fantasy phone calls, I think I need to talk to myself about my relationship with the world and its people. The dusty cross on my forehead as I write this is a reminder that today is not the start of a fitness program or even six weeks of self improvement. So in this conversation with myself, I need to agree that now is a very acceptable time for me:

• To seek mercy and forgiveness from those I have hurt or offended or neglected–especially those closest to me.
• To reach out to people in need with my time, my treasure, and my talent.
• To make sure that I am doing my best to care for our common home by lightening my footprint on God’s good earth.
• To examine my attitude toward people who are different from me in age, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation so that I do not treat any human being like an outcast.
• To extend the hand of friendship and understanding to all I meet.
• To offer mercy and forgiveness to anyone who has hurt or offended me.
• Most of all I need to realize that I am not the center of the universe. I am one contingent being spending so short a time here.

Lent is a good time to talk–an acceptable time to grow, change for the better, and accept the salvation that has been so freely offered and so dearly won.