Giving up for Lent

Yesterday a friend of mine from college (who is now a Lutheran pastor) posted the following on as her Facebook L... thinks if you give something up for lent, you should indulge in it for the 50 days of Easter. So choose carefully!" And it struck me as odd almost as soon as I read it. Why on earth would I want to indulge in the sin I am giving up for lent? Isn't lent about purging sin and denying self? But upon further reflection, I realized she is responding to the cultural norm of lent, not necessarily the deeper spiritual discipline we are called to observe.

Some how the church culture in our country (among those who observe lent) has turned it into something like an abbreviated New Year's resolution. And isn't it perfectly timed for that? Round about mid February you wake up one day and realize you didn't even make it this far with your resolution to stop smoking, drink less, restrict desert, work out, or just lose weight in general. Hey, no problem, Lent is almost here and instead of devoting a whole year to this goal, you can go a mere 40 days and consider it a success! Better still, Sundays don't count, so you can get drunk, smoke 3 packs and gain 5lbs, and as long as that activity is confined to Sundays, you're good!! You laugh at my sarcasm? My first exposure to lent was as a non-Christian in a Catholic school setting. One of my classmates was so self-sacrificing she was giving up her chocolate allergy for Lent. Of course that's the goal of a child, but she was only modeling what she saw grown-ups doing: coming up with a very easy "sacrifice".

I suppose my first Lent as a Christian I may have likewise given up chocolate, or maybe I went so far as deserts in general. It's entirely possible since I don't remember the discipline of choice. And it is what those around me were doing. But obviously I gained very little from this sacrifice, otherwise I would remember it. I do remember that one Sunday at my Godmother's house I was offered some thing that was against the discipline and was quickly informed that Sundays didn't count because they're mini-Easters and therefore days of feast not penitence (I did have some sound instruction). But within a year or two, I discovered a spiritually more fulfilling way to sacrifice for Lent.

The 40 days of Lent are a tradition in the church that go back centuries. The Book of Common Prayer tells us that in the early church they were a time for new Christians to prepare themselves for baptism, and for members who had fallen away due to sin to repent and return to the community. Furthermore, we observe 40 days because that is how long Jesus prayed and fasted in the wilderness all the while resisting Satan. This call to discipline is very weighty indeed.

Do you suppose the call to eat chocolate was so strong for our Lord that his willpower in resisting it has been recorded in holy scriptures for us to celebrate to this day? I don't think so! He was resisting Satan, utter power, the opportunity to deny his calling to be Christ and to reign in power, not in death. Likewise, I believe lent is the opportunity for us to examine our lives and pull out something that keeps us from living into Christ, the full and wonderful creations He made us to be. Self-denial is not about giving up something we like for the sake of being a little miserable for 40 days (except Sundays), it is about denying something that has become so deeply ingrained in our self that it separates us from the love of God.

I discovered this meaning round about the ripe old age of 20. Lent was looming and I couldn't decide what to give up. I guess I must have listened to myself talking one day because it suddenly dawned on me that I should give up talking about men. It gave me great joy to discuss the opposite sex and their various interactions with me, or so I thought at the time because I did it all the time, so much that even I apparently became annoyed by it. I don't remember how it started, I do remember wondering if I could possibly do it. I just didn't know how to make conversation about anything else. It was the perfect Lenten sacrifice. By the end of 40 days I had made a new discovery that I was interesting. I could converse about my own ideas and experiences and didn't need to draw on some guy to make it whole, to make me whole. That remarkable 40 days was transformational for me; I have never forgotten it. 40 days without men allowed me to become more of the woman God made me to be and to find wholeness in Him rather than something of this world. I just shudder to think what would have been undone had I then spent the next 50 days reverting to the old behavior. Of course I discuss men from time to time, as is normal for a married woman, but I do it only when normal and appropriate, rather than obsessively at all times.

Oh I am not saying that abstaining from chocolate cannot be this kind of discipline. I saw a story about a woman who was so addicted to chocolate she had it hidden all over the house so it was always a short reach away. Certainly that level of dependence on chocolate is exactly the kind of thing we are being called to pluck from our lives. When food, drink, addiction takes on the role of idol as more important than God in our lives, then, yes, denying it for 40 days is exactly what we are being called upon to do. But I'm saying you shouldn't give up something you wish to resume when 40 days are over. Give up something for 40 days, calling upon God for strength, with the hope that by plucking from yourself this vice, you will be a new creation at Easter and never wish to indulge in your old vice again.

I suppose diet and exercise could also fall into this discipline if the purpose behind the discipline is to strengthen the body that is temple for the Holy Spirit so to be equipped for the work God is calling us to do. If you only thought of that reason after reading the last sentence, it doesn't count.

I have a good friend who incorporates a denial of internet sites such as message boards and Facebook into her Lenten discipline most years (since I've met her). It strikes me that this is the kind of denial that one might engage in and yet return to when Lent has passed. For 40 days she gives up something that takes her time and attention away from God and from her calling (to be mother, carer of many, trainer of future generations) and refocuses on what is central in life. No doubt this discipline impacts her internet usage far beyond the days of Lent as her routines and rituals change. I believe in years past she has held onto stricter internet usage beyond the 40 days, having found it to be a rewarding change. But to then spend 50 days "indulging" in internet usage would undo those new routines and find her again distracted from life.

I think there is a cultural flaw in the way we interpret the call to "self-denial". Something of our puritan history hear this and thinks "don't do fun things". But really, I believe the call is to deny those pieces of our self that are riddled with a habit of sin. We all have them. Sin here is not the way we break the rules, but rather that thing that keeps us from being fully with God. Like the idol of men for me, or time at the computer for my friend, and even chocolate for the addicted woman. For most of us, even a chocolate a day doesn't put a barrier between us and God, but a habit of complaining might, or the need to rush around entirely too busy. Perhaps clearing the calendar or adding family time is what we need. Perhaps it's a spending habit that keeps us from tithing for kingdom work, or maybe it is that smoking habit that needs to stop now and never start again. But the penitence of lent should be viewed as a start of something more permanent, not something we return to as a celebration in Easter.

Most of all, we need to give up this idea that we cannot celebrate in Lent. Lent is all about celebration! In repenting and returning to God, we celebrate His supremacy in our lives. We celebrate freedom, and the power God gives us to overcome the sins that would destroy us. Repentance is the first step in claiming the forgiveness we have because of God's own sacrifice. It is in itself a celebration. And if we do it right, we find that, come Easter, we are more completely alive and aware of that gift. So give up this lent and find that you have gained much more. Don't return to your self of old in Easter but continue that celebration in new life. Sorry, L... I will not be choosing as you have charged.