So what are you doing for Lent?

Well, it's Lent. For those that don't know, Lent is the forty days from Ash Wednesday, leading up to Easter. It is a time of personal reflection, and remembering the sacrifice that Christ made for you, and for all. 

Traditionally, people have sacrificed something from their daily lives in order to remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us on the cross. Because Christ was beaten, bruised, cut, whipped, and executed so that we may have the promise of eternal life, we give up things like coffee, soda, cigarettes, alcohol, Facebook and other internet things, and meat on Fridays. Last year, I gave up soda. It was the longest and most tiring forty days of my life.


All things aside, no sacrifice we make will ever amount to the sacrifice that Christ made, and no one in Heaven or on Earth has a reasonable expectation that you do so. What we need to do is give up the things that separate us from God. All the things listed above have the capacity to do that, but we need to keep the focus on God.


So the first question would be: Do I need to sacrifice something for Lent in order to be a good Christian. The answer is no. However, as I will demonstrate in future posts (so stay tuned for those), there is a spiritual benefit to doing so, even if it is not explicitly Biblically required. What I suggest we all do for Lent is not give something up per se, but to do something that will bring us closer to God.


Confusing? I'll give an example. A certain blog writer who shall remain nameless (me) has a very hectic life. Between working forty plus hours a week, helping raise a three year old son and a five month old daughter, trying his best to make a weekly blog post (sorry about last week by the way), attend worship services, attend mentoring sessions, lead a youth group, and spend what little time I have left with my family, my days are booked solid from when I wake up at around 5:45 - 6:00, until I go to bed about twenty minutes after my daughter does. Notice anything missing? I did: prayer. I need that one on one time with God. Prayer is important, even Jesus prayed here, here, here, and here. So what I'm doing is finding time for intentional prayer. 


To avoid just laying down in bed about to go to sleep and saying "oh yeah, and God I pray for...." I have decided to follow a format that can be found here. I usually only do either the morning or evening prayer, but am working towards doing both. What these formats allow me to do is intentionally pray for protection throughout the day, pray for others, pray for myself, and especially pray that I am given the words to speak in order to minister to others. Also, it gives me the opportunity to ask the inevitable forgiveness for when I mess all that up, along with many other sins. 


But that's just an idea, you don't have to use it. If you choose to steal it, that's cool too. As always, I'll end by saying keep your head in the word. I'll also end with this: What are you doing for Lent? But more importantly, Why are you doing it for Lent? Feel free to leave a comment so other people can get other ideas. I'm also kinda curious.


Amen