Well, it's that time of year again. I won't lie to you, I've never actually given anything up for Lent, since I'm not Catholic. I've always thought of Lent as a Catholic construct with absolutely no root in scripture. Yes, Jesus fasted for 40 days in the wilderness before his crucifixion, but why does that mean I can't have a protein-filled slab of meat of Fridays? Who came up with that? Fish Fridays! Rude. What if I honestly don't like fish? Then I guess, for me, it's Soy Friday.
In any case, I've been thinking a little bit about what I might give up for Lent:
1. Give up meat
2. Fast
3. No Dexter
Blah, blah, blah. It all seemed so lame. Especially because WHY am I doing this? Why does one specific time of year, more than any other, require that I try to strengthen my relationship with Christ? Shouldn't I be doing that every day? All very legit points, but at the same time, Lent can be a springboard. It's like the New Year's of Christianity. It's a time where we resolve to do better by God, and we start thinking about what we should sacrifice in our attempt to do this.
So what to give up? There are the cliche few that EVERYONE gives up: chocolate, facebook, etc., etc. But how do those sacrifices get you closer to God? What, of God, will we replace the chocolate and facebook with? How does God view chocolate and facebook? Are they sins? Are they vices? Idols? The whole thing is very confusing to me.
This morning while I was praying and reading the scriptures, I stumbled upon what my Lenten sacrifice should be:
Psalms 51:16 - 17
There it is. God is not pleased with our external sacrifice. Back in the day, they might have sacrificed a few more bulls, or killed a few birds and sprinkled the blood on some stones. IDK. But what this scripture is saying is: God has no need of those things. And this is in a time when burnt offerings and sacrifices were definitely in play. But even then...that's not what God wanted. I don't want to deter anyone's Lent plans, but I think...God doesn't want your chocolate. Nor does He want the password to your Facebook account. What he really wants is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.
How do we go about giving that to Him? Thoughts?
Well, being that we were raised in the same Faith, you know that I don't give up anything for Lent. However, the church that I fellowship with observes what is called The Daniel Fast. I researched it, and was surprised to find a lot of information on the web about it. It appears to be something that perhaps the "black church" does, in lieu of the traditional Lent sacrifices. It is based on cleansing your body, mind and spirit before Easter. It is based on scripture. Look it up, you might prefer this.
ReplyDeleteHeb 13:15 "Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name." Giving up a lot of the other stuff can be a good thing, and a good way to remind yourself of what you're really living for; however, I think this verse (and Psalm 51, like you said) shows how we sometimes bypass the obvious for the obscure. He wants praise, and we give Him facebook. He wants our lives, and we give Him our diets. We overcomplicate our relationship with Him. (I'm guilty of this, too.)
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