So about Lent...

Lent is a 40 day liturgical season of prayer and fasting, that starts on Ash Wednesday and ends on Good Friday. These forty days of prayer and fasting represent the forty days that Jesus spent in the desert, enduring great temptation and suffering. Essentially, the purpose of Lent is to prepare our hearts for the celebration of Jesus' resurrection, now known as Easter.

I've fasted from something every Lent for the last 8 years or so. Most years, my fast has been more self-centered than I'd like to admit. I've never minded giving up things like chocolate, since it might help me lose a few pounds. I jumped at the chance to give up buying new clothes, so I could save money. I loved the idea of giving up eating meat, in hopes it would help me become a more permanent vegetarian.

But as I've spent more time reflecting about Lent, and what it really means, I'm beginning to realize that the purpose of Lent is not just to give something up because you want to change a bad habit or benefit from the fast in some way. The purpose of Lent is to give something up to God, something that you do in fact want back, in order to spend more quality time with Him in prayer and reflection. So often we choose food to fast from, because Jesus fasted while he was in the desert. But does avoiding food (sugar, chocolate, coffee, etc.) give us more time with God? No. Perhaps we'll have an extra 10 minutes in our day from avoiding a Starbucks run, but I think that misses the point.

So this year, Jon and I spent a lot of time trying to decide what we would fast from. We eventually decided that together, we would fast from watching television. We both love watching TV in the evenings, and we find it a relaxing way to spend time together. However, the purpose of Lent is spending more time in fellowship, more time with God, more time in reflection, and more time in prayer. Do you see the common theme there? We have committed, for this Lent, to give more time to God, more time to our friends, more time to each other. Jesus spent his life here in ministry, dedicating his time to bringing glory to God and salvation to us. His whole life centered around that, and as bummed as I am to miss out on my favorite shows for the next two months, an extra hour a day to give selflessly pales in comparison to what Jesus gave to us.

Happy Lent!