A Parable for Lent

I’ve been having computer troubles. Don’t we all at some time? My computer troubles are never small fixes. They are major, expensive time-consuming workarounds.

My journey this time has taken approximately 14 weeks. From changing a broken, dead HP mainframe tower to an Apple OS/X with a duo platform in Windows. I did my due diligence in storing my files. I even had a high falootin’ mirror that imaged and stored things as I created them so I didn’t have to do a thing to make sure my files were safe.

Despite my efforts, my new Windows 7 operating system would absolutely not read my files. I’ve been slowly and painstakingly connecting my big external mirror storage drive to an old laptop and with a little thumb drive, copying and moving information. It has not been fun. It’s a slow task. Maddening, thrashing, boring, angering, and other endless adjectives depicting the most frustrating straits has been my demeanor through this process.

I also spent 9 hours on Friday slowly restoring data contact files that had been corrupted. I have another storage system that involves cyber storage and links my computer to my phone. Last week, my phone died. I had to restore all the information. During this process, all the contacts began multiplying; yes multiplying!. I had duplicate contacts for some people, triple for others, and even as many as six identical files for one contact. Yikes! It was like the Star Trek episode, “The Trouble with Trebles” where these little furry creatures just kept multiplying and multiplying.

Last night at 5:15 pm, I think I have completed this journey; my small triumph. Finishing this computer nightmare also made me think about my back yard. It was in shambles from the extended freeze suffered in January throughout the Deep South. I finally took the time this past weekend to tear out all those broken branches and prune the dead rotting palm fronds, slimy and mushy, lying in their deadness around burdened trunks. It was a nasty, dirty job. But in the pruning this past Monday morning, at the bottom of one bush was the tiny, delicate, new light green leaf of new growth.

It occurred to me all this cleaning and purging was like this Lenten season. This is the time of introspection and ponder; the time of working through process to prepare for the Resurrection and Joy. Are we not supposed to suffer during Lent? Or at least struggle and wrestle with ourselves? Isn’t that what giving something up is about? Or doing study or meditation practices? Are we not striving to achieve something?

If we cannot clean out, tear out, break down, and sometimes painstaking walk the heavy laden struggles of rendering clean the old broken, stinky, musty time-consuming, wrenching files and leaves that clutter of our minds and lives, the new cannot grow. We must, no matter how reluctant, clean out and prepare for the fresh growth and new sprouts to come or we stagnant.

And there my friends, is my parable: purging the old to ready the way for the new, the spring, and the joy that I can move forward in my work. May you find the way to remove your obstacles for the new to grow in your life.

Peace.