I walk with my dog Bernie every morning, and every morning he plays the game of Trading Up. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the game. For my dog, it goes something like this… he will come upon some object that is lying on the sidewalk or in a snowbank or in the middle of the street or at the base of a trash can (his favorite place), and he will pick it up in his mouth. I understand that a good and responsible dog owner would take whatever object he has newly acquired out of his mouth immediately, but to do so would require me to take off my mittens, “convince” Bernie that the object is not good for him, and then when the convincing doesn’t work, to wrestle the object out of his chops. Frankly, I’ve made peace with the truth that I am not a good and responsible dog owner, and so, I allow Bernie to continue the walk with his newly acquired treasure. Okay, let’s say Bernie has picked up a chunk of disgusting ice that has fallen from the rear wheel well of some passing truck. He will carry the ice until he comes across something that he deems better, for example, a McDonald’s french fry holder. His first option is to carry both the ice and the french fry holder, but when he realizes that his mouth is not large enough for both, he chooses the one that he deems more valuable, in this case, the McDonald’s french fry holder. Bernie will continue this game for the entire walk, and usually by the time we arrive back at the house, he will attempt entry with whatever “superior” object to which he has traded up. At least half the time, said superlative object is road kill.

Of course, this game of Trading Up is one which humans play also. Much of the time, many of us play this game of desiring and seeking that which we do not have. This yearning for what we do not have leads to dissatisfaction with what we do have. Further, if and when we do actually acquire that for which we yearn, we usually quickly tire of it, desiring and seeking something else which we deem more valuable. And so it goes. We do it with clothes. We do it with cars. We do it with houses. We do it with jobs. We even do it with our relationships. And rarely does this game of Trading Up satisfy.

William Wordsworth, the renowned 19th century English romantic poet, writes, “The world is too much with us, late and soon, getting and spending we lay waste our powers.” Wordsworth lived at a time of the industrial revolution when many people traded up for the bright and shiny objects of their new society, all the while sacrificing their connection with nature and God. Wordsworth describes the game as a colossal “waste of our powers.”

All the great religions, including Christianity, speak to the futility and waste of playing this game of trading up. Indeed, the incarnation of Jesus may be interpreted as the direct opposite. The apostle Paul writes that Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born of human likeness”. If anything, this is a game of “trading down”! It is in humbling himself “to the point of death, even death on the cross” that Jesus establishes the way of life and salvation. And as followers of Christ, this is the way we are called to journey as well.

Lent is a time for subtraction, of self-emptying. During Lent we are given the opportunity to discover once again that we are loved and belong just as we are and with just what we have, not as the world tells us we should be or as the world tells us we should have. So this Lent, may we refrain from laying waste our powers. May we choose the Way of Christ, and leave Trading Up to the dogs.

~Father Art