With Lent starting tomorrow, we’d like to invite you to spend this famously spare season in a way that will help you get maximum enjoyment out of life. Sound provocative? Read on.

First off, there is a problem with the way Lent and the Christian life in general is so often described. We reduce it to a kind of “formula” that goes like this: “Sacrifice worldly things in order to gain closer union with God.” But this formula leaves out a crucial piece of the equation: it doesn’t factor in that we generally aren’t spiritually advanced enough to be driven by our desire for union with God.

The hard truth is that we have too much of a taste for worldly things and their easy dopamine hits. And that means the leap to spiritual things can be a bridge too far. So, despite our desire for the fullness of the good for which we were created, we can experience Lent as a slog that we can’t wait to see in the rearview mirror.

Enter the Trinity House Way, which puts the spotlight on what God designed to fill that crucial gap, allowing us to make the leap from a cheap taste for worldly attractions to a rich desire for spiritual things. You see, God put something into the world where the material and spiritual come together, forming a perfect bridge for growing our desire for union with him. Our bridge to a closer union with God is other people—especially our families.

In our family and friends lies the secret to why the devil doesn’t want us to follow the Trinity House Way. Because the evil one knows that our desire for communion with our loved ones is the strong assistance that we need—to decrease our taste for worldly attractions and increase our desire for the show-stopping interpersonal communion that is the life of God. 
 
It’s as simple as it sounds. When we decrease the amount of time we spend on addictive and largely impersonal activities—movies, video games, scrolling, shopping, overwork—it frees us up to spend time with our loved ones in more valuable, interpersonal activities like conversation, walks, working side-by-side in the home, reading aloud, or playing a game together. Similarly, when we turn away from overindulgence in alcohol and food, our minds and bodies become clearer and stronger, and we’re able to be present to our loved ones in deeper ways.

The progress of a Trinity House Lent should be very similar to any good detox:

• At first, the removal of the things that have been giving us cheap dopamine hits makes us quite irritable. But instead of white-knuckling it toward our spiritual goals, let’s devote ourselves to more interpersonal activities that increase family bonding, like the above-mentioned walks, talks, working and cooking simple Lenten fare together, and more family prayer time.

• As we regain our taste for the communion we’re made for, we will sense those feelings of irritability subside. As we get further from the addictive rushes, we get closer to true fulfillment. As we spend more time in relationship, growing our family bonds, our desire for the source of our family’s love in His image will also grow.

• By the end of Lent, God will have drawn us from the bridge of a beautiful, engaged family life all the way into a greater union with its source. Not only will we have greater desire for God, we will have much more ability to focus on communion with Him in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving or service!

As we prepare to journey through this season of detachment, let’s not forget that we’ll be gaining a taste for what we most desire. Instead of each family member having a Lone Ranger Lent of individual feats, let’s come together and build a family that reflects God’s image into the world.

Our prayer for this Lent is that we’ll discover the treasure that is hiding in plain sight: the presence of God in our homes. Our families bear the imago Trinitatis—the “image of the Trinity,” and they are our most sure means to greater union with Him. By focusing on the Trinity House Way in Lent, may our families enter the Easter season—and beyond—with a new sense of togetherness and of our deepest identity as an image of the Most Holy Trinity.

Here’s a practical means to using the Trinity House Way as your bridge to greater union with God this Lent. This week, buy our Heaven in Your Home Letters & Guide: Inspiration & Tools for Building a Trinity House (Amazon, $19.99). And then each week of Lent, starting next Monday, read and reflect on one chapter from Part I, covering the ‘5 Levels’ of your Trinity House. Then in Holy Week, read Part II, especially the reflection on the Trinity icon. Happy Lent!