This is a fun article if you want to start observing late: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7923701.stm
Thoughts on Lent?
Did you give up anything?
Have you ever had a great experience with Lent?
Anybody ever go through the book Mars Hill (Bell's Mars Hill, don't think Driscoll is going to support Lent too much) put out a few years ago? I think I saved it, never printed it, and definitely don't remember anything about it.
I find it funny the amount of tests and papers and discussion forums I have to do for Seminary... And, this might be my first conversation on Lent. If there are a billion Roman Catholics then I am just out of touch right? :)
3 comments:
Growing up, my family observed Lent very strictly - no TV, no candy, no eating out, limited music, video games, and computer if at all. My parents also fasted every Wednesday and Friday, and the rest of us ate soup, bread, and grilled cheese for dinner those days - it would be months before any of us wanted grilled cheese again! Anyway, my parents loved Lent and still do; us kids hated it. Now that I am grown up and make my own decisions, I do not observe Lent, although I am exactly like you in that I intend to consider it every year and then usually forget. Happened again this year.
My parents love Lent because it is a time for them to 'clean house,' so to speak, to be reminded of who/what is in charge of their lives - not food, not TV, not candy, etc. They gain more time to spend with God, and after 6 weeks of sacrifice, Good Friday and Easter in my experience gain an extra layer of meaning - and celebration.
When I went to college I struggled with whether or not to follow Lent, and I decided not to when I realized my only argument for it was legalistic - I should observe Lent because that's what I did before. I didn't get (and still don't to some extent) exactly how it all worked, how giving things up brought you closer to God, because I had never had that result from Lent. I just got bored, hungry for sugar and amazingly tired of grilled cheese. After six years of no Lent, I think I am just starting to understand and appreciate the benefits of it, and I may return to it someday if I feel I can have the right attitude and motivation.
I often observe Lent. I didn't grow up with it (I've never been Catholic), although I think people in my family did it and just didn't talk about it. I did it for a couple of years, and then got really interested when I read Girl Meets God. Father Jonathan also wrote a really interesting article about it being an exercise in failure, rather than a competition of holiness.
I think it's great as a discipline. I have had some amazing experiences, some painful ones, and a lot of revealing ones.
This year, I was really struggling with what to do, or whether to do anything. I had a really good conversation with a friend of mine about Sabbath, and how sometimes failure to observe it is a direct lack of trust. Then, I heard my uncle give a really good sermon introducing Lent to his church. I decided this year should be less about what to give up, and more about trusting deliberately, letting things in that I was putting up walls against, and creating a sense of anticipation for Easter.
It's still an exercise in discipline and sometimes failure, but I am finding out that I am having to give up a lot of things, like pride and anger and control.
I successfully observed the "giving up" portion of lent one year, in which I was able to give up soda. What I learned from it is how much you will tend to miss something that is such a part of you if it is no longer there. After it was over, I felt like I could take or leave of soda, and I eventually gave up regular soda all together in favor of diet. Did I learn anything? I think I learned something about self-discipline, especially when no one else is watching.
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