Lent: n.The 40 weekdays from Ash Wednesday until Easter observed by Christians as a season of fasting and penitence in preparation for Easter.
simple, right?
"We have 40 days to prepare ourselves, to face ourselves, and to examine ourselves in the presence of God."
"It means dying to an old way of being...However you feel called to observe or participate in or whatever it is you give up during this Lenten season do so with the intentionality of drawing closer to God"
So basically the point is to be like whoa. I screw up more than I thought, and I can't do anything without God. The point is that when it gets difficult to not have whatever you gave up or keep up with whatever you said you'd do, you lean on God to help you stay away from/in...whatever it is.
The season of Lent is taken for granted. I feel like a lot of people today make a game out of it rather than taking it to heart and realizing how much more important it is than they think.
The main idea here is commitment. The object here is not to see who can last the longest without breaking their commitment, or how many other people you can get to break theirs. Lent is a time to be motivated to recommit to God by realizing how much we screw up through our commitment to giving something up or making a habit of something. It's not meant to be a competition. In fact, it's not even meant to be between ourselves and other people, but between us and God because when we tell other people, "Hey I'm giving (insert...something here) for Lent" we sound like we're putting ourselves above everyone else. Not only that, but more importantly, people are going to want to tempt us, not necessarily because they're mean people, but because they're human.
I'm in no position to say any of this because I'm guilty of all of it. It just bothers me. It also bothers me that when people mention Lent, they only talk about themselves and what they're giving up or adding. Nobody goes deeper into the topic anymore, and the reality of it just sits there. The reality is that we mess up a LOT, and we can't fix any of that without God. The reality is that the next 40 days are a window of oppurtunity to be critical of ourselves, recommit, and prepare ourselves for the death and resurrection of Christ. The reality is that we are completely helpless without Him, and it's time we start taking that, along with the Lenten promises we make seriously. (myself included)
