How full is your Lenten lockbox this year?  Ah, that miraculous vault where we store our excesses and bad habits for a little more than a month, only to take them back when the stone is rolled away from the empty tomb. At times it can be hard to tell if we are overjoyed at the news that “He is not here” or that we can finally stuff our faces with chocolate once again.

It is an interesting Lenten discipline that we have built up and built upon.  In recent years people have gone beyond deprivation to adding activities to their Lenten journey intended to make a positive impact in their own lives or the lives of their churches and communities.

Building upon this Lenten tradition is quite in line with the historic development of the Lenten fast which took its current 40-day shape sometime after the Council of Nicaea (325 CE).  Early observants sometimes fasted only for a day or two, others for the 6 days leading up to Easter which was eventually solemnized into Holy Week.  Given the Biblical record and its referents to fasting for 40 days, Holy Week soon found itself as the ending high note of a fast that extended to more than a month.

Yes, yes, all very interesting.  But what does this have to do with budgeting?

To get to that, let’s take a look at the penitential practice.  Lent historically has not focused solely on deprivation, on giving something up.  Certainly, the Lenten discipline traditionally involved fasting.  In modern times, with the exception of Eastern Orthodoxy, the discipline of fasting has largely been relaxed if not altogether removed.  Some remnants remain however, such as Shrove (or Fat) Tuesday to provide a vestigial reminder of the fasting that once was quite common.

However, the Lenten discipline wasn’t only about fasting.  Christians fasted, but that fasting was accompanied by two other disciplines: prayer and sharing with the poor.  These three practices made up the essential toolkit for the Lenten discipline.  It is the collection of these practices that can teach us something useful about budgeting, because they point to three key teachings:

#1 – You Have Enough

Have you ever wondered what the financially content have in common?  They know they have enough. They have what we would refer to in the realm of budgeting as “margin”.  Their spending plan has breathing room.  It should be noted – so long as you are not living in poverty – that having enough has little to do with how much money you earn.  People on modest incomes can feel they have enough.  People with six- and seven-figure incomes can be plagued with a mindset of scarcity.

As a discipline, fasting is a very physical reminder that you have enough; that you have margin; that you can manage with less than what you normally consume.  You can eat one meal a day for more than a month and not starve to death.  Sure, your stomach might growl more often, but you’re not going to die.  Still, it is no wonder that fasting as a spiritual practice has disappeared in a society where platefuls of food from any cuisine can be delivered right to your door with just a few touches of your smart phone. As the stretching of the American waistline bears witness: we have more than enough food.  As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we also have enough financial resources.

Imagine what a financial fast could teach us; a deliberate elimination of non-essential spending.

#2 – Reorient to Key Priorities

In some ways the pandemic provided a test run for taking a financial fast, because it essentially put us on one whether we wanted it or not. In doing so, it gave many financial breathing room. With that space came an opportunity to rethink key priorities.

In the Lenten discipline, fasting is accompanied by prayer.  As the person is directed away from their consumption, they are consumed instead through their communion with God.  It is a fundamental shifting of priorities away from the things of this world (quite literally) towards our relationship with the eternal.

Whether someone crafts a formal spending plan or not, nowhere are priorities laid more bare than in the lines of a financial ledger. During the financial fast brought on by the pandemic, people have reflected on their financial priorities.  That reflection has led to change. 

#3 Redirect What You Have to What Is Truly Important

And so we come to the third part of the Lenten discipline: giving alms to the poor.  Having freed themselves up from the treadmill of consumption and reorienting their priorities as children of God, the faithful redirected resources to those in need.

There are plenty of spending priorities from which people beg off by pleading their own poverty. If only I had enough left over at the end of the month to save more for retirement, to give to charity, to protect my family, to pay down debt.  By resetting on what is enough and reorienting to key priorities, suddenly people have greater capacity to do these things.

A year into the pandemic discretionary spending is down. Indebtedness is also down, while savings is up.  Is that a coincidence?  I bet not.  The financial fasting has been real.  People have assessed other financial priorities and redirected their resources to them.  Based on early reports, charitable giving rose by 2% last year.  New priorities indeed.

Of course, a remaining question is whether this redirection will last.  I doubt it.  Humans are frail and fickle creatures, easily lured by the treasures of this world.  It should not surprise us that the Lenten fast was an annual discipline.  As humans, we are prone to running off the rails.  We need regular reminders to keep us on track, for which an annual Lenten discipline comes in handy.

While the vigor of the Lenten fast has waned in modern times, it is something to wonder what it might mean for the faithful, if the church were to adopt this season as a time for disciplined stewardship: financial fasting, prayerful prioritization, and intentional redirection in our financial actions.