“Only two things are certain in this life,” said Benjamin Franklin—“death and taxes.” And when this time of year rolls around, there are plenty of people who begin to wonder if they wouldn’t prefer the former to the latter.

The headaches begin with organizing all the necessary forms, records, and paperwork. Then comes the aggravation of either doling out too much money for tax preparation services or taking time away from other things you’d rather be doing to prepare them yourself. And then, when all the work is done, the whole ordeal is topped off by the disheartening experience of watching your hard-earned money leave your bank account en route to government coffers to be imprudently spent for who knows what purposes.

At least this is how many of us experience tax season each year. This year, however, I am proposing an imaginative exercise to help us look at taxes with new eyes.

Let’s start by wiping the slate clean. Imagine you have never paid taxes before. So far so good, right? Now imagine you live in a society that does not collect taxes. The tradeoff is that it also does not provide any of the services that taxes finance. Picture what that place is like. (If you need some help, watch this video clip.) Notice all the basic goods that are missing—things that you probably take for granted on a daily basis like waste removal and sanitation, clean water, public education, the security provided by a professional (uncorrupt) police force.

Now, having pictured yourself in that situation, imagine that someone has promised to reliably provide you with all those service and asks only that you settle accounts once a year. Would you take them up on it?

Preparing taxes is not fun for anyone, and no one likes to see money leaving their bank account for anything that doesn’t deliver instant gratification or long-term returns. But we all might think differently about tax season if we looked at it as a reminder of how good we have it through the whole year. The liturgical season of Lent serves a similar function. For 40 days out of the year we are encouraged to give something up (or do something extra) as a way of heightening our awareness of the good life God has made possible for us. Especially given the coinciding of the two seasons, it would not be that outlandish to approach tax preparation as a sort of Lenten practice.

The idea is not so strange as it first seems, for Jesus himself noted the spiritual implications of paying taxes. When asked about it, he famously responded, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” (Mk 12:17). What do these words mean for us today? One meaning, I’d suggest, is that, of all the purposes to which we could put our money, paying for the things that ensure us a basic quality of life (i.e., paying taxes) is a perfectly appropriate one. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. In other words, use worldly resources to meet worldly needs. Meeting spiritual needs, however, is a different matter. No matter how much money fills our bank accounts, it will never be enough to fill our hearts. That is why we do well to regard money as a means of meeting our creaturely needs and rely on God for the fulfillment of our deeper longings.

So this year, after the taxes are finally filed, I propose we seize the occasion to turn to God in gratitude. Headache though taxes might be, they might also serve as a reminder of all that we have and of those who file no taxes but reap none of the benefits either. A dollar put towards education or sanitation is a dollar well spent, and I know I for one should be more grateful that I have the means to pay for and receive such services. Who knows… maybe that thought is just the nudge we need this Lent to help improve the life of someone who is not as fortunate.