Growing up Baptist, I never knew what Lent was. I had always associated Lent with the stuff you cleaned out of the dryer filter or the fuzzy stuff found in a belly button. My friends at school who were Catholic seemed to talk about eating fish more often around Lent but I could never see what fish and dryer filters had to do with one another.
As an adult I learned that Lent was the forty days leading up to Easter and people gave up something they really liked during this time. Since joining Facebook a few years ago I see lots of people sharing that they have given up chocolate or wine but the meaning and origin of Lent remained a mystery to me until recently.
Fun Fact: Did you know that Lent comes from an Old English word that means lengthen, signifying that the days are getting longer because Spring is here? In her book, Treasuring God in Our Traditions, Noel Piper says, "Traditionally Lent is a season of sober, realistic reflection on our own lives and our need for a Savior. It is a time for turning away from anything that has kept us from God and for turning or returning to him. It is a time to pray that God renew our love for him and our dependence on him."
In light of this explanation, I've got to tell you, I don't think chocolate keeps me from God. I think it's a little less to do with cocoa beans and more to do with my sinful and lazy nature. When we joined a Methodist church a few years ago, Ellie came home from Sunday School and announced that for Lent, she was going to give up asking for a puppy. Very admirable but still not sure we understood the deeper point.
This year at our Ash Wednesday service, which has become one of my favorite nights of the year, our pastor, Jim Leggett, explained Lent to us this way. What do you want to trust God for over the next 40 days? What will be different 40 days from now? What is in our lives that needs to die to Christ (sinful habits, sickness, injustice)? What is dead in our lives that Christ would want to resurrect (our marriage, intimacy with God, hope)?
Hear me say that giving something up for Lent can be useful and beautiful but only if we are truly using this fast to intentionally draw closer to God. Lent is not meant to be a cultural ritual but a conduit to a Holy God. Too many Easter Sunday's have crept up on me and I find myself in a new dress and shoes but a heart that is utterly unprepared for the greatest holiday of the year.
This time of year is about setting ourselves apart from our everyday routines in order to experience the brevity of what Christ's death and resurrection mean for us personally.
Friends, let us give ourselves truly to God this Lenten season. Let us ask God to examine our hearts and give him permission to crucify or resurrect those areas of our lives as he sees fit. Then on Easter Sunday we will come worshipping together in a glorious celebration of all that God has done for us through the Cross.
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