I find it helpful to know where words originate. Today I’d like to look at two words.
The first, dessert, comes from the old French word desservir, “to clean the table.” It literally means “un-serve” (des -“un” and server -“serve”) signifying the end of a meal. The second, desert, originates from the Latin word deserere, which means “to abandon.”
Next Tuesday is the day before Lent begins, also known as Fat Tuesday, the day we feast on dessert before going into a desert state. Knowing the origins of the two words, it makes sense that we are using dessert to signal the end of the meal time and desert to signal the abandoning of things in our lives.
My hope for you this Lent is to hold on to the origin of these words. Lent is meant to bring balance and focus back into your life on the thing that truly matters … the one thing that always matters. Instead of asking what you’ll “give up” this Lent, maybe you should ask yourself what you’ll “un-serve” and “abandon”? Abandon one thing that is stopping you from giving more time to Christ and focus on one thing that will.
Makana Aiona is the diocesan coordinator for Young Adult Ministry.