Re-Lent

Wednesday Feb. the 21st 2007 was Ash Wednesday. For those of you who don't know Ash Wednesday is a Catholic holiday celebrated 40 days before Easter. It is also the start of lent. To celebrate this holiday catholics will smudge ash on their foreheads and dedicate that they will give up some food or activity for the 40 days leading up to Easter. For us as Baptists this kind of behavior is odd and unnatural. "Why give up some sort of food? It is there to be eaten, and the Bible never mentions lent." is the cry from the Baptist.

For me I celebrated Ash Wednesday by smudging some pencil lead on my forehead, and dressing like a Lutheran priest(Notice the Pic). I was having a blast mocking the catholics. But where did Lent come from?

Lent started as a preparation to celebrate Easter. 40-60 days were set aside to prepare one's body and mind for Easter. These days would be spent working and fasting (except for Sundays and Saturdays). The idea was that the hunger would be a constant reminder to focus on God, and stay away from sin, and if you have ever fasted you know it works. So it was started as a good Godly thing, something that we should be glad to join in on. Something to remind us of what Christ did on the Cross. So why don't we celebrate this holyday?

As Baptists we don't celebrate Lent for three main reasons. First we don't do it because the Catholics do, and we don't want to be like the C's. Secondly we don't celebrate Lent because since Lent was started it has changed. Lent is now a ritual that is done because good catholics "do Lent" and bad catholics don't. Like the pharisees catholicism has added Lent to their list of do's and don't's. It has lost it's meaning. The third reason that most Baptists don't do this type of thing is that they don't have the will for it. We are not willing to give something up for that long. It is quite sad that those, that have no hope, can love their traditions more than those, that have all hope, love their God.

Don't get me wrong, Baptists should not celebrate Lent. But Baptists should revive the idea behind Lent. The idea that we can, and should, love to live without something for a short time if it will just remind us of what Christ did for us, and if it will just focus our attention on God.

So what are you giving up for Lent?

Well It is cold

You got to love Wisconsin. A few weeks ago the state had everyone convinced of global warming, then 5ish days of snow, and now the second ice-age has hit. As I write this it is -11 without wind-chill!!

But the cold is not what I am writing about. Rewind to the snow part. It snowed for 5 days. Sure it would stop every now and then but every day for 5 days in a row it snowed. Some of it was small and bead shaped, some was large and clumpy, and yet more was mid-sized and snowish. But it snowed.

Now I know you all are thinking "Joy. Now he is going to tell us what bad days those were, because that is always what he does when he talks about snow." But NO!!! Those were great days!!
I had fun, got lots of work done, tried out for and got into a play, even got a fair amount of sleep. And whenever I awoke there was snow falling. Those days were such a blessing.

You see, as the snow fell, some people complained, and griped, and worried, and were miserable. But some people were happy, and took the snow in stride, and liked the snow. Yet either way the snow fell. Some grew tired of the snow and forgot to enjoy its' intrinsic beauty. Others could not help but smile as they saw the snow dance its' graceful dance. And yet the snow fell.

It reminds me of God's blessing. Psalms reminds us "Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah." The blessings of the Lord come daily. And they come in great abundance. We are so surounded by the Lord's goodness! Praise the Lord!
Yet all too often we see the things He brings and we gripe about all the things that are happening. Sometimes we even get so focused on the good things that are happening we forget to look to the One who sent them.

I love snow, but I love the God of the snow better. . . Yet not enough. . .

Praise the Lord that He Is