Last week I was full of angst about Lent beginning. I couldn’t settle on something to abstain from for the 40 days of Lent, as is the custom in most Christian traditions. But yesterday, I had a moment of clarity, and I was struck with how quickly I am to make purchases, particularly on iTunes and Amazon. So, for Lent, I’m giving up impulse buying. No new books. No new music.
So yesterday, in an act of Fat-Tuesday-living-it-up-one-last-hurrah, I ordered 3 books and downloaded a CD.
Which just reveals how much I need a season of non-impulse buying.
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ahhh, yeah, Seth and I definitely went and got ice cream yesterday since I am giving up all sweets except those from bees & trees. (fruit and honey).
we totally splurged and went all out.
I really don’t understand why people feel the need to give up these kinds of things.
Why not just try to pray more or spend more time with God or read your bible or help someone in need?
I don’t see how giving up entertainment or food for 6 weeks helps us become closer to Christ and helps us experience Easter in a different way. I think all it makes me focus on is, “Yay, it’s almost Easter! Now I can do _______ again!”
You know?
Just my thoughts.
@ Sarah C…..
I love what your saying because its the truth of how out of whack a core spiritual practice has become. I would venture to say if someone says during their giving up of something;
“Yay, it’s almost Easter! Now I can do _______ again!”
Then they need to reassess their position to God because a journey with God is not about a destination – but the relationship. I say this from being in many seasons of doing something good, like fasting, and realizing that i am simply counting down the days instead of counting up the blessings.
BUT please continue to ask the tough questions and engage the “why?” because we as a broken filter for God’s message need to be reminded.
I’ll just respond out of my own experience. If this doesn’t work for you, no big deal. But here’s why I abstain during Lent:
During Lent, I try to do those things as well – pray more, spend more time with God, etc.
But, it’s also a time of the year, where I choose to become painfully aware of all the little gods in my life. And in choosing to give up things in my life it creates little “holes,” that I try to fill with more prayer, more Jesus. It’s all about connecting my body, the physical, with the spiritual.
So is Lent a time of real personal sacrifice (in honor of Jesus’s 40 days of Man vs. Wild) or is it a temporary season of self improvement?
I guess that is what I don’t understand either… Is this season of giving up things for YOU or for making sacrifices for GOD?
Also, I’m confused about what you said Charlie, here: “I couldn’t settle on something to abstain from for the 40 days of Lent, as is the custom in most Christian traditions.”
So are you saying that you feel some kind of guilt as a Christian to practice Lent and abstain from some sort of pleasure? And are you doing this because it’s a tradition you’ve grown up practicing, and you feel you must continue that tradition? I don’t understand the motive.
I hope I’m not offending anyone, I just have lots of questions, and lots to learn!
Sarah,
I give up things for ME. I can’t speak for everyone in the Christian tradition, but for me it’s a season of spiritual training, of making a more intentional effort to live in a way that I probably ought to live all the time, but find myself distracted from.
I don’t feel any kind of guilt to observe Lent. In fact, in the traditions I grew up with, Catholics were almost worse than unbelievers, so anything to do with Lent was written off as “too Catholic.” What I am saying, is that, in part, my motive is that Christians have been finding these practices useful for most of church history, and therefore I want to explore them and find the meaning in them.
My greater motivation lies more in the area of greater self improvement, although I think that language doesn’t really work for me. I really prefer the language of “training to be more like Jesus in thought & action.” (but that’s just off the top of my head)
It is not only Christians who have practiced Lenten behavior. Islam, Hindu, Judaism, Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, Jainism, Raelism, among others all have these types of behavior.
Except for Buddhism, the original motivation of these practices was to provide a sign of penance or sacrifice to a god or gods.
Christian enforcement of the rules has relaxed over the centuries, in contrast with other religions who remain quite strict.
To be motivated by self improvement and detachment from our earthly desires and distractions, rather than fealty or sacrificial offering to a god, seems very much in line with a Buddhist philosophy. I don’t see anything wrong with that.