Yes, Lent starts tomorrow.
No, I'm not going to stay up all night doing the thing that I've decided to give up.
I'm convinced that Lent has turned into simply an excuse to party on a Tuesday.
I didn't grow up in a church that participated in Lent and didn't really have a chance to experience it for myself until my freshman year of college. Even then, I didn't really do it for the sake of giving up something for God, I did it because one of my roommates was Catholic and wanted to try out a bit of church tradition for myself.
Either way, I've decided to keep participating in Lent ever since, but my attitude around it has changed. As far as I understand it, Lent is supposed to be a time (40 days) that you spend in sacrifice of one thing or another that has the chance to lead you away from the Lord. Its an extended period of fasting, but not necessarily from food. My first Lent I somehow convinced a whole bunch of people to give up drinking all liquids save water, which was really hard since I was (and still am) addicted to tea and the chocolate milk in the cafeteria. Sophomore year I gave up bad posture (this was an inspiration from my friend Robbie, he always has immaculate posture). I don't even remember what I gave up last year. But this year I think things will be different.
I'm giving up being busy. I do a lot of things. Not necessarily that they are bad things, but I can get stressed out and forget to rest. We see that rest is a common thing in the Bible, and God even mandates it in one of the Ten Commandments (remember something about the Sabbath? Day of rest? Oh yeah!). I think this is a way that God wants his people to be well taken care of. If we were to just go running around like a chicken with it's head cut off all the time, then we would forget the Lord's goodness and how he cares for us.
So instead of purposefully forgetting to put things on my to-do list, I've decided that I will try to make it more manageable and stop looking at it every hour of the day. I've been learning recently that if we really want God to be moving in our relationships and growing us and others, then we need to have time in our schedules for God to "interrupt" our plans. We should welcome any divine inconvenience that comes our way.
So happy Mardi Gras, and an even happier Lent. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless His people!
"Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you!" Psalm 116:7
1 comment:
love that psalm. keep us updated on how your 'fast from busyness' goes. i hope it is fabulous for you.
i hate mardi gras. hate it! well the party part. i had a traumatizing experience in SLO during their HUGE mardi gras celebration. it was horrific. ever since i have had a terrible taste in my mouth for mardi gras.
but i do think lent is cool. i have thought of trying it out but never actually tried it. am i allowed to start late? maybe i will just wait until next year.... hmm...
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