We’ve all heard about it before. Lent. The season where religious folks give up something for 40 days and Catholics can’t eat meat on Fridays. Many protestants view it as a religious ritual that is strict and unnecessary during this Easter season, but is it really? I decided to find out.
Growing up, I heard about lent once in a while, but it was definitely never at the forefront of my mind. It seemed like one of those religious rituals that went along with the conservative Christendom of the olden days, so I didn’t think much of it.
Once in a while I would hear about lent apart from a Catholic context while listening to a Christian radio station or from a friend who decided to observe the Lenten season. I learned that it wasn’t just a Catholic discipline and that it was a valuable practice to observe. So I thought that someday I might give it a try. But every year when the Easter season rolled around, I decided I would rather not sacrifice if it wasn’t necessary.
This year was different. This year I was attending a Christian Bible school when Lenten season rolled around and I heard more and more people talking about it. Contrary to popular belief, the youth of the church are not crying out for more electric guitars and cool light shows in churches. Instead I see more and more of my friends embracing Anglican churches and liturgical tradition. Individualism has taken its toll, and now Christian millennials are desiring to join with saints past and present in long held tradition to proclaim and live out biblical truths in meaningful ways.
“Individualism has taken its toll, and now Christian millennials are desiring to join with saints past and present in long held tradition to proclaim and live out biblical truths in meaningful ways.”
Slowly through the past couple of years as I have heard more and more professors and students talk about it, I have grown a deep appreciation for liturgy. I never grew up in a liturgical church and didn’t understand the meaning behind it as a child. But once I began to grasp its importance, I wished more churches incorporated liturgy into their services.
Liturgy is a way to identify yourself as a part of the worldwide body of Christ and join with the church throughout all time in proclaiming the core truths of Christian doctrine. When a congregation recites the apostles creed, it is not just rote and empty words. Instead, it is a way to join with every other believer who has uttered those words and proclaim the truths of our faith together. What a beautiful act, and what a wonderful way to worship God!
My appreciation for liturgy continued to grow and when Lenten season came upon us this year, I began to reconsider the way I’d thought about it in years past. I had wondered about it from afar for so long, but this year I decided to give it a shot. I admit, I felt like I was shooting in the dark, because I really had no idea what I was doing. I knew the basics – the very basics – and that was it. But you know what’s beautiful about that? God didn’t care.
So often in the church we feel shame if we don’t have all the answers, especially for the kids who grew up in church and went to Sunday school every week. But Jesus never called us to have all the answers. He called us to follow him – even if that means shooting in the dark once in a while.
So when I started out in my lenten journey, I had no idea what I was doing. It ended up being a beautiful way for God to show me that He meets me exactly where I’m at, and he doesn’t ask me to have all the answers before I come to Him.
I started off lent by typing in a Google search for “what to give up for lent”. Not the most spiritual way to choose sacrifice, I know. The night before Ash Wednesday, I decided I would give up chocolate. This was for many reasons. One is that I often use chocolate to soothe my emotions. I decided I should probably be going to Jesus with that rather than an inanimate object. Another reason I decided on Chocolate is because I LOVE chocolate. I wanted to choose something that would actually be a sacrifice rather than a slight inconvenience. I knew that I would miss chocolate. But on top of that, I knew it would cause me to rejoice all the more when the day of my Savior’s Resurrection came. It’s a little thing, but just imagine the joy of reaching into that Easter basket and pulling out a chocolate bar to consume after sacrificing that joy for over a month. Looking forward to that small joy has helped emphasize the far greater joy and celebration that the Resurrection brings.
I admit I observed lent imperfectly. I broke it on occasion for specific reasons, and I did not spend as much time spiritually reflecting on the Easter story as I would have liked. But to me, this time was a way to physically experience a symbolic practice that helped prepare my heart for all that this season means. It was an intentional way for me to engage in that meaning.
I went to our campus Ash Wednesday service that Wednesday knowing nothing more than the couple sentence summary a friend had given me about what such a service is meant to be. I felt uncomfortable as I sat down and participated in something so foreign to me. We read prayers together and lamented over our sin. I asked God to teach me how to lament over sin, since I had no clue what that looked like practically. It was the most somber service I have ever attended, and that made me squirm. But it was refreshing to me because it was real. I was uncomfortable because it was new, but I rejoiced because it was beautiful. Why didn’t the church join together to lament sin more often?
“Why doesn’t the church join together to lament sin more often?”
At the end of the service we lined up to get the ash cross placed on our forehead or hand. This made me uneasy at first because it seemed like such a self-righteous thing to do, just to proclaim to the world how spiritual you were for observing lent. But when they explained that it was a physical symbol to be used as a reminder of our humble place before God, my appreciation for the mark grew. It was truly meaningful to see that symbol on my hand throughout the day and remember the profound truth of where I stand before our great Lord and Master.
As I observed the Lenten season, I also found out that we are not to fast on Sundays. The Sabbath is a day when we are to feast and rest and enjoy God’s presence with us. I found that I often forgot to eat chocolate on these days, but the mere freedom to do so was a great reminder to me to enjoy God and celebrate the Sabbath.
As this Lenten season comes to a close, I look back on the past forty days with gratitude. A spiritual discipline that once seemed so rigid and void of meaning has now become very close to my heart and has drawn me to my Savior. I have looked forward to Easter morning more than I have in years because my heart is ready to celebrate. Easter encapsulates the celebration of the biggest scandal ever recorded, when my Jesus gave up everything, made himself nothing, died a criminal’s death, and conquered over that death so that I can be in an intimate relationship with the King of Kings . Too often words fall short of expressing all that the gospel means, and too often we reduce it to a monotone 1-sentence summary, but there is truly no better thing to celebrate. Happy Easter! Our Lord is Risen!
Our Lord is Risen!
To learn more about Lent, you can read a blog post my friend, Marco wrote HERE.
