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?