To Lent or not to Lent?

My dad was a pastor; Pastor Guy. Enough said, right? You’d think I would speak spiritualistic jargon as a second language; however, I don’t. I’ve never once participated in Lent, furthermore I am (or…WAS, before a few hours ago) relatively/completely unfamiliar with the tradition of lent. Sooo, I decided to investigate.

I found out that the ACTUAL purpose of Lent is to provide a purified mind and heart by weaning people from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer. The overall goal is to create a stronger desire to do God’s will by bringing Him to the forefront of their thoughts whenever struggle/temptation surfaces; this is all to prepare our hearts for Easter Sunday when we celebrate the resurrection. Seems pretty basic.

I have a bone to pick though.

 

We’ll start with the exploitation of Lent for the self-satisfaction/approval of others. After snooping around in the bible and on the world wide web, I’ve discovered that we are doing this all wrong. I’m no bible expert, but I know that there are a bajllion and one references in the bible about not being all extravagant to impress others and not being a pharisee; basically, quit bragging about what’s being given up. If you’re telling everyone and their mom what is being given up, perhaps we need to do a quick motive check. Are people really doing it to prepare your heart for what Jesus did for all of us? Or is it to impress the people around us, “oh, sorry, can’t eat that… I’M doing Lent… aren’t you?”.

Matthew 6:5-6 sums it up perfectly:

When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them…But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private.

The book of Matthew also says about fasting:

And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting. – Matthew 5:16

I would think the same goes for lent. If this is a time of PRAYER and for some, FASTING… you would think that, perhaps, it’s not a time to look for attention and a pat on the shoulder from Sister Sarah of the Catholic Council.

I personally am going to make every effort to not tell people whether or not I am participating in Lent. Haha, how about a little irony? I’m giving up lent for Lent! Not really— but hey, it could work!

 

 

Anyway, that’s my quandary for the year. Not really the year, but for now. Other than that it’s Spring Break 2011 and I’m going to be featured on Girls Gone Wild, spring break edition (I’m giving up being on GGW for Lent. haha too far?). Ummm, what I actually mean is I am in Port Charlotte, I was sick for two days of my stay here anddd I leave tomorrow.

It’s been SUPER relaxing to be home… but I am surprisingly ready to get back up to Tallahassee… hmmm, quite similar to last year. Interesting.

 

WELL! That’s all. It’s too late to be up doing such out of control things as blogging…. wahhhhh, see what Port Charlotte does to me?!

 

cheeeeyaaa!