lenton season

Today is Ash Wednesday, which traditionally marks the church calendar as the start of the church season of Lent. Now, I know that the nondenominational church often times does not recognize the church seasons- its for the more traditional congregations. Therefore, I thought it was a very Catholic tradition to celebrate, with many giving something up/fasting from something of their choosing for the entire season, starting with Ash Wednesday and ending at Easter.

With many coworkers who are Catholic discussing what they are giving up for Lent, having these conversations about what they are 'not going to do' rubbed me the wrong way and blurred the true picture of why we give something up for Lent. The reasonings behind the self induced sacrifice of many were completely focused on the 'do not do this or eat this' part of the giving something up for Lent. This misses gains we can partake in with the spiritual discipline of fasting (which is what everyone is doing whether they know it or not). Fasting should be the desires for the thing you have given up now focused on our Heavenly Father and using those desires to understand the desires we are to be have for learning of Christ, reading scriptures, and seeking Him in prayer. It seemed like everyone was fasting because they were told to rather than having it as an attitude of sacrifice of the heart and yearning to become into a deeper understanding of Christ.

(This got me thinking about fasting in general, not just in the context of Lent. I was going to include a paragraph about fasting in general but as it turns out, I learned far more things then can be divulged in one measly paragraph and the Lord revealed a lot about it, so I will post about fasting tomorrow!)

But sticking to the topic of Lent, I wanted to research Ash Wednesday and Lent a bit more on how we, as evangelical protestants, are suppose to recognize, celebrate, and acknowledge Lent. Through my research, I found this article on Relevant magazine's website that was very insightful. By no means, I'm not saying the article is scripture, but it does give a good perspective into why we should observe Lent. Read it. And read some excerpts below.

We should never be nervous about how God feels about us. At the very core of faith is the assurance that God loves each one of us incautiously and recklessly. We should find great comfort in the fact that He knows every stupid, silly, mean, ill-motived and outright sinful thing about you and me, and yet He still pursues and loves us. But on some level, we can’t just think about that; we should respond to that.

There is plenty of room for believers to love God more—room for us to be caught up in an infatuation with the Holy. Seasons like Lent provide space for us to intentionally do so. I’m not saying we should try to love Him extra in order to make Him love us more—He loves us, period, not in response to what we do or don’t do. But loving God back is a natural thing for those who have been deeply touched by Him.

We put so much emphasis on belief; to be sure, believing is where it all starts—I’m just not sure that believing is enough to make us world-changing, Kingdom people. Richard Foster wrote: “In our day heaven and earth are on tiptoe waiting for the emerging of a Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered people. All of creation watches expectantly for the springing up of a disciplined, freely gathered, martyr people who know in this life the life and power of the kingdom of God. It has happened before. It can happen again …”

Lent is a place where we can respond to the Lord's love for us. It is a way to harness a discipline as a body of believers and experience a deeper and more intimate understanding of Christ. To know how it is to sacrifice one tiny part of our lives so we can understand the complete sacrifice Christ made through sacrificing his entire life. Food for thought.