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What are
you giving up for Lent? We church folks hear that
question quite often. I have heard of all sorts of
things given up for lent. Chocolate, sodas, TV, tobacco,
and computer games just to name a few. Me, I plan to
give up my humility, after all I am humble and proud of
it!
But what is Lent and why do we give up things during
this period? Lent is the forty-day period of prayer and
spiritual self-examination that prepares for the
festival of the Resurrection, Easter. Lent is identified
with the passion or suffering of Christ, who died for
our sins. Forty days is reflective of the forty days
Jesus fasted in the wilderness. We give up something we
do, preferably something that we like, to remind us of
what Jesus gave up for us.
The disciplines that we practice during lent, such as
prayer, fasting, self-denial (giving up something for
Lent) gives us the opportunity to share with others the
reason for these actions.
In the Book of Worship, the liturgy used in the Ash
Wednesday Service issues this invitation:
I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to
observe a holy Lent: by self-examination, and
repentance; by prayer, fasting and self-denial; and by
reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word. To make a
right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our
mortal nature, let us now kneel before our Creator and
Redeemer.
“A HOLY LENT”! Today I want to issue that same
invitation to you again. Holy means to be set apart. I
pray that all our actions this season will set us apart
as the people of Jesus.
May you have a blessed and holy Lent!
Love, Fred |
