Though religion eludes me, I can understand and appreciate the meaning of Lent. Jesus, before beginning his ministry, spent 40 days in the desert fasting and praying - basically, getting ready to be the Messiah. The Christian Lenten tradition of sacrifice is supposed to be the modern Christian's way of acting like Christ did during these 40 days and getting closer to God.
Unfortunately, there is so much emphasis put on "sacrifice" today that the praying part of Christ's 40 days gets lost in Lent. When faced with two options - giving up carbs for 40 days or praying regularly and intently for 40 days - I suspect most people would say that option 1 is easier. I believe that this is why many Christians hold onto the sacrifice part of Lent, and ignore the prayer/introspection part of it. As most of us know, it's easier to close the pantry than look deeply into oneself. I can attest to the difficulty of the latter.
Even for the non religious types, Lent has a good lesson. Take time to spend with yourself. Look inside, challenge your beliefs and habits. Get yourself ready to be more passionate about something, or more open, or more aware of your own thoughts. I spend so much time focusing on external problems, that the internal ones can easily be ignored. I know I'm not alone in this.
I am very religious, and just as we as a society seem to have lost our way on Christmas, so is the case with Lent and Easter. Lent is a time of turning back to God, of simplifying our life, and of bringing our doubts about God and our relationship with him front and center as a means of deepening our understanding. I don't think of Lent as a time to make a sacrifice in the name of God - I do that every day. Instead, I look at this as a time to remove the clutter and "white noise" from my life to foster a deeper relationship with God and to better understand my purpose.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post Chase :-) Made me think...
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