I didn't grow up observing Lent. I attended a small non-denominational country church near Albany NY which had only four days on the church calendar - Christmas, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday. Sometimes Pentecost if the pastor was paying attention and thought that day was also significant. Even the denominational Christian college where I spent four years did not promote Lent or Advent as I recall, though they may have done it without my understanding.
It wasn't until I began working at a United Methodist church that I became aware of these Christian seasons, both through special services and through changing the colors of the altar cloths and choir stoles. I began to enjoy moving through the Christian story, giving more attention to the preparation for the two biggest events in human history - the birth of Jesus and his death and resurrection.
There is something powerful in joining with believers from around the world and across all faith traditions. I become more focused and intentional on remembering what my Lord and my God did for me. His reality becomes more significant than the world around me. I look for resources to help me go deeper in my understanding and practice.
Lent is the period of time leading up to Easter, beginning this year on on March 5. As I reflected on what it means to observe Lent, and wondered what I would do this year, it seemed there was a variety of ways that people set this time apart.
GIVING UP
The usual practice is to give something up. The purpose could be to experience a sacrifice that would help us identify with the sacrifice of Christ. As a type of fast, it could also serve to make a person more sensitive to spiritual things.
The items I often hear about are coffee, chocolate, desserts, Facebook, computer games - all things we may take great pleasure in doing that would become a personal sacrifice of sorts.
The positive results of
Giving Up would be the daily reminder of what we are doing for the sake of Christ, as well as the witness to others that there is a greater purpose to follow in life.
The negative could be choosing something we could temporarily live without, choosing a trivial item that has little relationship to the actual purposes of Lent, and even the joy in resuming the practice that was given up that overshadows the Resurrection!
GIVING OUT
Some choose to give more sacrificially to others during Lent, engaging in outreach to the needy. The purpose would again be identification with the life and sacrifice of Christ.
Volunteering, raising awareness, giving resources and time - all activities which are intentionally done during Lent as a service to the less fortunate.
This is actually related to the first point, since it is a "fast" that God prefers from us:
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter;
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?"
What could be more honoring to the Savior than for us to do as He did in serving the poor. And certainly charitable organizations can use all the help they can get.
However, if we view our activities as "paying our dues", or giving us credit on some spiritual scale, we reduce the meaning of
Giving Out to another way to benefit ourselves more than others.
GIVING IN
Another word is surrender. Choosing to follow the will of God rather than my own.
It requires self-reflection to see who is really in charge.
Repentance.
Listening.
Seeking.
Desiring.
It is much harder than the other two (though may be combined with them).
It believes that God wants to control my Lenten journey, which may lead to a mountain top or valley.
It may be walking by myself or with others, though always with Him.
It is seeking the Giver more than the Gift, the Person more than the Practice.
I want to be ready on March 5 to begin whatever Jesus wants me to do for the next 40 days. In this regard, "pre-Lent"is as important as Lent itself. It is good to be intentional and plan how to put yourself in a place of hearing from and responding to God. I have been learning of various things other people have done or are doing during Lent:
- Give up being critical … or self-centered … or wanting to be comfortable all the time
- Give up praying in the usual way. One writer felt God wanted her to pray with 3 words only each day. It's not as easy as it sounds, to discern what 3 words would convey best what you wanted to say to God.
- Get on a scripture reading plan. That same author has a 40 day plan to read through the New Testament, 7 chapters a day. See margaretfeinberg.com
- Read some good Lenten books or guides. Our personal favorite is Reliving the Passion by Walter Wangerin.
- Reflect on hymns and songs that tell about the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus. You could do a song a day, and not exhaust them all.
- Attend special services during Lent, even at churches other than your own.
Watch this blog for more Lenten reflections. And let me know what God has led you to do!
