Do you participate in Lenten activities? For years, my church had devotional services each day at noon during the week before Easter, but we didn’t even use the word “Lent.”
If you are Catholic or Anglican, you likely have had a background of Lenten participation for years.
During the first two centuries, a shortened version of Lent was observed. The forty-day Lent became more popular in the third century.
I find that more and more churches are now participating in Lenten activities – devotion guides in preparation for Easter, Ash Wednesday services, fasting from a food or activity, etc.
About ten years ago, I privately decided that I would give up deserts for the forty days leading up to Easter and continued each year. I deliberately refrained from telling anyone. I thought it would feel like bragging.
I soon gained a sense of the idea of fasting. At times it was painful watching everyone enjoy ice cream or chocolate cake or even cookies. As I refrained, I caught the basis for this time of fasting, because each time it brought to mind why I was fasting.
My little pain was nothing compared to my Lord’s pain, but it did bring my mind in tow every time I said, “No thank you.” It became an ongoing reminder of what He did for me on Calvary.
If you are fasting this year from a food or activity, good for you if it activates your mind and draws you closer to our Savior. Others have found that instead of refraining from something, they would rather add a deed of service as their Lenten observance. Service is always a good idea. Think of our Lord as you go.
This year, I discovered unexpectedly a book I had in my office called “Forty Days of Decrease” by Alicia Britt Chole. In each chapter (Day 1, Day 2, etc.) Alicia talks about a passage in the last days of Jesus ministry, then she gives a “Reflection” such as “Have you thinned your life in order to thicken your communion with God?” Then she offers an idea for the day’s fast, like “Lent as a project.” She invites the reader “to consider Lent less of a project and more of a sojourn.”
Another day, the “Reflection” is on the love of God. And “Today’s Fast: Regrets.” She says, “Regret empties anticipation and suffocates hope. Regret is a form of self-punishment. Whereas hindsight helps us learn from the past, regret beats us up with the past.”
Each day has a reading suggestion from the book of John with lots of lines for you to record your own thoughts.
I’m not saying that this kind of Lenten observance is what you need to do, but I do think some sort of way to trigger your thinking in order to prepare for a meaningful remembrance of our Lord’s pain and sacrifice on the cross along with preparation for the joy of his resurrection would honor him and make Easter more precious to you.
Our tendency is to want to increase – in money or prestige, popularity or child rearing, positions, knowledge, worthiness. Alicia suggests we focus on decrease. More of God, less of self. “40 Days of Decrease.”
~ Joyce ~