The Meaning of Lent
REV CHARLIE (MARCH 2021)
As soon as the new year began, I noticed a lot of posts on social media about dry January. I had not heard of it before, but someone seems to have come up with the idea of having an alcohol free month at the beginning of the year and it has caught on. Most of the posts were amusing memes about people’s failed attempts to complete (or even start) dry January.
We are now two weeks into the Christian season of Lent, a period of forty days (not including Sundays), leading up to Easter. For most people, if they know anything at all about Lent, it is that Christians temporarily give stuff up. It may even look a bit like the Christian equivalent of dry January, or even an opportunity to redeem the failures of dry January. You may have heard of people giving up alcohol, chocolate, coffee or television for Lent. You may have given something up yourself.
Giving up a luxury item for Lent is no bad thing, but it does not get to the heart of Lent’s purpose. The idea of Lent is rooted in the Old Testament and in the New. It is reminiscent of the forty years that God’s people spent wandering in the wilderness (no time to get into that here), but more importantly it has to do with Jesus’ time in the wilderness. After his baptism and before beginning his public ministry Jesus spent forty days in the desert being tested or tempted by the devil (Luke 4: 1-18). During this time Jesus rejected all other paths, except the one ordained for him by his Father in heaven.
For Christians, Lent is a time to get back on the path that God has set before us, as we prepare to experience first the sorrow and then the joy of Easter. It is a time to focus on spiritual disciplines that will bring us closer to God (prayer and fasting included). Of course, Christians should engage in spiritual disciplines all year round, however, by making a concerted effort during Lent, we hope to form good habits that will remain with us.
That said, the spiritual disciplines of prayer, bible reading, worship, fellowship, fasting and so on, are of no use if they do not make us more Christ-like. The purpose of spiritual disciplines is to help us draw near to God and grow in holiness. It grieves God when we engage in religious practices, without having a change of heart and subsequent change of behaviour (Amos 5: 21-25).
Lent should be thought of an opportunity to grow in holiness; a time to make permanent changes to the way that we think, live and interact with others. We can do better than making Lent a Christian version of ‘Dry January’.
This Lent I encourage you to give up something that is marring your life and your relationship with God and take up something that is life giving:
Give up anger and take up patience
Give up gossiping and take up trustworthiness
Give up laziness and take up self-discipline
Give up workaholism and take up balance
Give up pornography and take up being attentive to your spouse
Give up stinginess and take up generosity
Give up resentment and take up forgiveness
Let us use this season of Lent to make lasting changes to our lives, not in our strength but in His.
