“Oh, come to the water, all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come!” (Isaiah 55:1)

We are all aware of three important things to remember during this joyful season of Lent – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. However, I believe that there is another, equally important element to Lent that may often go unrecognised or misunderstood – recreation.

Often, we think of recreation simply as “having a laugh” or enjoying ourselves. However, if you look closely, you discover the true meaning behind the word. Recreation means (literally) to be re-created: to be made anew, to have life breathed into you once again.

I like to think of recreation as similar to going to a well. We go to the well when we are thirsty, when we need to renew our strength. If we don’t, we shrivel up, and our lives become dry and barren. We sit at the well and patiently draw up the water from deep within. When we receive the water, our thirst is quenched, and we are recreated: life literally flows into us once again.

We each have our own wells in our lives. God has placed them there: 

“For I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people” (Isaiah 43:20). 

I remember the last time I went to the well. I was feeling pretty stressed and anxious about life. I had many things on my mind. So I walked over to Wollaton Park, a lovely park very close to my university. It was a beautiful spring day. I walked around the lake and sat on a bench, watching people feed the ducks. I went into the forest and sat down at the foot of a tree. I wrote a bit in my journal and spoke to my mum on the phone. I didn’t really do much that day. But that was the beauty of it – I had time to simply be. When I eventually went home, my worries and anxieties hadn’t magically disappeared. However, I felt like I was more able to face up to them. I felt refreshed, re-created.

 We have reached the half-way stage in Lent. I know that, for me, Lent hasn’t been as reflective or as peaceful as I had hoped (quite the opposite!). I haven’t been to the well as often as I might have wished. However, as has already been said, it’s important to keep looking forward. We can only live in the present moment we are given; we cannot live in a past full of regrets or a future full of fears. If, like me, Lent hasn’t been going exactly as you’d planned, do not worry. Lent begins again each day.

If I had to give one piece of advice for the rest of this Lenten season, and for life in general actually, it would be this: take time to go to the well. 

“With joy you draw will water from the wells of salvation” (Isaiah 12:3)

I hope and pray that this will be true for each of us.

“Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again; but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life.” 

(John 4:13-14)

Conor Gaffey

20 years young

From Chingford, London

Studying Theology at the University of Nottingham.