“Are you giving up anything for lent?” she asked with a laugh and a roll of her eyes, as if suggesting that such an idea was silly. I wasn’t offended by her attitude, because I know this is a common viewpoint among some Christians. Maybe they see it as a legalistic “Catholic” sort of thing to do. But I am a little saddened by the bad rap celebrating lent (does it make sense to say “celebrating” here?) has gotten, especially among some Christians. Lent originated as a time for reflection and repentance for Christians preparing to be baptized at Easter. Now it is a time for us to remember our own baptism, reflecting on the cross Jesus bore for our sins, so that we could repent and be forgiven. “Giving up stuff” (stuff that would be an actual sacrifice to give up, not like giving up pulling weeds) could be a great faith-strengthening opportunity. To deny yourself something is to feel a pang of sacrifice, which reminds us of the tremendous sacrifice made on our behalf. It’s the same idea behind Lenten fasting.<\/p>\n
It is true, though, that there is a fine line between becomming legalistic about it and just going through the motions because you “have to”, and getting too pious and self-righteous about it, as though it somehow makes you “better” before God. That’s why there must be some devotional meaning attached to it, otherwise it becomes as useful as trying to climb a ladder to heaven.<\/p>\n
I try and think about that everytime I get a craving for that little fun-size snickers I know I could find in the little candy basket in the office down the hall, or the yummy red-hots I became addicted to by Valentine’s Day (can you guess — I’m trying to give up junky sweets). Of course it’s silly to think that denying myself a candy bar compares at all to the sufferings of Jesus, but it makes me mindful of them in any case.<\/p>\n
Either that or I just whine inwardly, “WHY did I have to give up that<\/em>?” And hopefully this reminds me of my sinful nature and my need for forgiveness, which in turn makes me mindful of the sufferings of Jesus (or it should anyway)…. and it all points back to the cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Are you giving up anything for lent?” she asked with a laugh and a roll of her eyes, as if suggesting that such an idea was silly. I wasn’t offended by her attitude, because I know this is a common viewpoint among some Christians. Maybe they see it as a legalistic “Catholic” sort of thing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thekurths.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}