Why I am now doing Lent

When Lent started I never really felt a need to give up anything. I felt that the spirit behind the act of abstaining from something for 40 days was not genuine. My line of reasoning was that people placed too much value on the act instead of on the heart of the matter. After all, we are called to give our entire lives to Christ. I also dislike conforming to a particular trend that everyone else does. Besides, the term Lent, I believe, cannot be found anywhere in the Bible. My reasoning was that Lent was not particularly biblical so why bother.

However, as time passed, the meaning behind Lent was slowly revealed by God to me. In a profound e-mail sent by my youth director, God really convicted me of the sacrifices Jesus had to make on earth. I discovered that Lent was a parallelism to the forty days Jesus spent in the desert. And God, being the the loving God that he is, convicted me of my own attitudes, not exclusively on Lent, but on my entire attitude toward physical deprivation for spiritual renewal such as fasting. I realized that what really prevented me from acknowledging the practice of Lent was my pride and selfishness. My pride in the fact that I did not want to do something that everyone else was doing, and my selfishness in that I did not want to give up something that I enjoy immensely. Boy, how God is awesome in his ways! Finally, I resolved to participate in Lent despite missing out on the first week and a half. Knowing myself, accidentally breaking my vows is a pressing and very real concern that I have. Mainly, because I so easily forget the promises and vows that I make to God. Therefore here are some guidelines I have made for myself going into Lent:

1) Lent is meant to help me better realize the sacrifice that Jesus made. I cannot even begin to realize the shear weight of God's ultimate sacrifice, but Lent is an opportunity to experience and model the life of Jesus.

2) Physical deprivation means nothing without spiritual reliance on God. Lent is for the glory of God, not the glory of man. May lent be an opportunity to praise and pray.

3) I also hope that Lent will help me appreciate the gracious blessings of God. I can only give up what God has so graciously given to me. Also, with eager anticipation I await the day of our risen LORD. These forty days of deprivation eventually will lead to an eager anticipation for the joyful celebration of our risen LORD this Easter.

So what did I give up? I decided to do the traditional catholic practice of giving up meat for this Lent. I wanted my sacrifice to be something that was somewhat difficult and to be something that I enjoy (eating vast amounts of meat). Therefore, I have decided to abstain from meat, excluding seafood, for the LORD. May every opportunity I crave meat be an opportunity to worship, praise, and thank God for the ultimate sacrifice he made. May these forty days be a time of reflection and meditation on things which are distracting me from God. I pray that God will bring me to full reliance on him and that he will guard my mouth and my heart.